经济学人:就业市场 毫无余地

 　　Employment

　　就业市场

　　Zero tolerance¹

　　毫无余地

　　The problem with zero-hours contracts is not that they are too flexible

　　零时工合同的问题可不是时间太灵活

　　BRITAIN'S flexible labour market was a boon² during the economic slump³, helping⁴ keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery began, allowing employment to rise. Yet one of its bendier bits is causing politicians to fret⁵. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, has promised a crackdown on “zero-hours contracts” if he wins the next election. The government has launched a consultation⁶.

　　英国灵活的劳动力市场在经济衰退期间是一个福音，因为这既帮助压低失业率,而且当经济开始复苏又促进就业。但其所带来的一些福利却让政客们烦躁不安。工党领袖埃德·米利班德承诺如果他赢得下次选举，他将打击“零时工合同”。政府也就打击零时工合同的事项展开磋商。

　　就业市场.jpg

　　Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need, with no prior notice. In theory, at least, people can refuse work. Fully⁷ 1.4m jobs were based on these contracts in January 2014, according to a snapsho taken by the Office for National Statistics. That is just 4% of the total, but the share rises to a quarter in the hospitality business.

　　零时工合同政策允许在没有事先通知的情况下雇佣工人工作，工作时间根据公司需求可长可短。在理论上,至少人们可以拒绝工作。根据国家统计局的统计，2014年1月，有140万个就业岗位是基于这种合约的。虽然只占总数的4%,但在酒店业务份额上，这种合同聘请的员工比例则有四分之一。

　　The contracts are useful for firms with erratic⁸ patterns of demand, such as hotels and restaurants. They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery—allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff, who would be more costly⁹ to make redundant¹⁰ if things went wrong.

　　零时工合同对酒店和餐馆这样不稳定需求模式的行业十分有用。这些零时工合同帮助公司在经济复苏期扩大规模，其方式是在雇佣固定员工之前测试应聘者的业务水平。因为一旦雇佣固定员工之后，这些员工出了问题，裁员的代价会更高。

　　Flexibility¹¹ suits some workers, too. According to one survey, 47% of those employed on zero-hours contracts were content to have no minimum contracted hours. Many of these workers are in full-time¹² education. The ability to turn down work is important to students, who want to revise (or sit in the sun) at this time of year. Pensioners¹³ keen for a little extra income can often live with the uncertainty¹⁴ of not having guaranteed hours.

　　灵活性对一些工人很适用。根据一项调查，47%零时工合同雇佣工对没有最少工时限制很满意，其中有很多人还在接受全日制教育。拒绝工作的能力对学生来说非常重要,因为他们想要在每年的这个时候复习(或者晒太阳)。渴望得到一点额外的收入的养老金领取者也可以在没有固定工作时间这种不确定的情况下游刃有余。

　　Yet that leaves more than a quarter of workers on zero-hours contracts who say they are unhappy with their conditions. Some of this is cyclical. During recessions, a dearth¹⁵ of permanent positions forces people into jobs with no contracted hours even if they do not want them (the government has just said that unemployed¹⁶ people who refuse to accept zero-hours contracts could be cut off from benefits). Underemployment is particularly prevalent among these workers, 35% of whom would like more hours compared with 12% in other jobs. As the economy recovers, many should be able to renegotiate their contracts or find permanent jobs.

　　然而,超过四分之一的零时工合同工说他们不满意他们的工作条件。有些不满是周期性的。在经济衰退期间,永久职位的缺乏迫使人们即使在不情愿的情况下也要选择没有合同时间的工作(政府刚刚说拒绝接受零时工合同的失业者有可能再也得不到好处)。这些工人中，失业情况尤其普遍,这些人中有35%想工作更长时间，而从事其他工作的人中只有12%想工作更久。随着经济的复苏,许多人能够重新协商合同或找到固定工作。

　　But the recovery will not cause unwanted zero-hours contracts to disappear. Some workers will never have much negotiating power: they are constrained¹⁷ by geography, family commitments and lack of competition for their skills among a small number of big employers. Zero-hours contracts make it easier for employers to abuse their labour-market power. Some use them to avoid statutory obligations such as sick and maternity¹⁸ pay. Workers are penalised for not being available when requested. And some contracts contain exclusivity clauses which prevent workers from taking additional jobs. These can harm other employers as well as workers, and actually reduce labour market flexibility. That, at least, is worth doing away with.

　　但经济复苏不会造成不必要的零时工合同消失。一些工人永远不会有太多的谈判资本: 在少量的大雇主面前，他们受到了地理、家庭承诺和技能竞争力等各方面限制。零时工合同使雇主能够更容易地滥用劳动力市场的力量。一些雇主用它来避免病假工资和产假工资等法定义务。工人们正在因为之前需要他们时没有及时到位而受到惩罚。一些合同还包含排他性条款，防止工人从事其他工作。这些既可以伤害其他雇主，也会伤害到工人；实际上，这也减少了劳动力市场的灵活性。所以至少这一项规定是应该摒弃的。

　　1.allow to 允许

　　例句:They will not allow your more way-out ideas to pass unchallenged.

　　他们不会放过你这些古怪的念头的。

　　2.at least 至少；最低限度

　　例句:She was at least that much shorter than me.

　　她至少比我矮这么多。

　　3.base on 以…为基础；以…为根据

　　例句:There was no strong organizational base on which to build.

　　缺乏一个坚实的组织基础。

　　4.such as 例如；诸如

　　例句:We dislike people such as him.

　　我们不喜欢像他这号人。

1 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

2 boon   

n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠

参考例句：

• A car is a real boon when you live in the country.在郊外居住，有辆汽车确实极为方便。
• These machines have proved a real boon to disabled people.事实证明这些机器让残疾人受益匪浅。

3 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.

6 consultation   

n.咨询；商量；商议；会议

参考例句：

• The company has promised wide consultation on its expansion plans.该公司允诺就其扩展计划广泛征求意见。
• The scheme was developed in close consultation with the local community.该计划是在同当地社区密切磋商中逐渐形成的。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

11 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

12 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

13 pensioners   

n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He intends to redistribute income from the middle class to poorer paid employees and pensioners. 他意图把中产阶级到低薪雇员和退休人员的收入做重新分配。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am myself one of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. 我自己就是一个我们的高贵的施主遗留基金的养老金领取者。 来自辞典例句

14 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

15 dearth   

n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨

参考例句：

• There is a dearth of good children's plays.目前缺少优秀的儿童剧。
• Many people in that country died because of dearth of food.那个国家有许多人因为缺少粮食而死。

16 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

17 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。

18 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。