End to zero-hour contracts for Parliament staff

Andrew Little said he understood the contractor is the Australian cleaning and catering company Spotless, and that the staff worked in catering. Photo / Thinkstock

Labour's quest to rid Parliament of zero-hour contracts has been successful.

The Parliamentary Service has announced its contractor has agreed to review the employment agreements of nine staff who work within Parliament and are on zero-hour contracts.

They will be offered agreements that include guaranteed hours.

Earlier today, Labour leader Andrew Little said he understood the contractor is the Australian cleaning and catering company Spotless, and that the staff worked in catering.

Mr Little said he had written to the Speaker to express concern over the "disgraceful" contracts being used within Parliament.

Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse has signaled his intent to see some of the harshest of the so-called zero-hour contracts outlawed.

Those included when people had to be available for work but were given no guaranteed hours of work, restraint of trade clauses, and the cancellation of shifts at short or no notice.

Earlier today, Prime Minister John Key said he was not responsible for the contracts under question in Parliament and was therefore unsure if they would fit within the areas of employment law the Government wanted to change.

"Where our real area of concern has been...is where there are predatory issues - where someone is actually stopped from working somewhere else because they are on a zero hour contract, it's where there are changes made to their hours very, very rapidly."