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PANSTADIA & ARENA MANAGEMENT WINTER 2013/14


UKVMA at first direct arena


The UK Venue Managers Association held its latest meeting at the brand new fi rst direct arena in Leeds. Amongst the presentations was a briefi ng on zero hours contracts.


T


he UK Venue Managers Association (UKVMA) provides a platform for


members to share information, management styles, real life experiences and best practice whilst gaining access to other members, networking opportunities and suppliers. Members are primarily multipurpose venue and facility managers from the sports and entertainment sector. With over 30 years of experience in these sectors themselves, Michael Cunnah and Noel Jeffs, from Stadium Management Systems, are both on the board of the UKVMA.


Membership not only includes free entry to the four meetings held each year across the UK, in different member venues, but also member rates on all UKVMA partnerships, including educational courses, complementary quarterly PanStadia and Arena Management Magazine posted and full access to the membership section of the UKVMA website.


The UKVMA held its latest meeting at the brand new fi rst direct arena Leeds in November. The arena’s Marketing Director Tony Watson and his colleagues proved excellent hosts for a day’s discussion and networking. The theme for the day was ‘how to extract more value from your venue’. Speakers included Sodexo. Levy Restaurants, Goodform, Agilysys and Blandy and Blandy LLP. The day concluded with a behind the scenes tour of the new arena.


The next meeting will be in Spring 2014 and details will be released soon. If you are interested in attending, and also regarding membership, then please go to www. ukvma.org or contact Konrad Start at konrad@aladltd.co.uk


Zero Hours contracts


At our recent meeting at the fi rst direct arena in Leeds, Shaun Hogan, employment lawyer at Thames Valley law fi rm Blandy & Blandy LLP, spoke about the use of Zero Hours contracts (ZHCs) at venues across the country and the pitfalls to avoid.


ZHCs are a type of ‘employment’ contract used to hire staff without the company having to provide a minimum amount of work or to pay staff unless they carry out work. Under a ZHC, a company can contact staff as and when they require the manpower.


ZHCs have received considerable negative media attention in recent months but Hogan thinks this should not put organisations off using them, in the right circumstances and in the right form: “Despite the negative aspects touched on by the media, ZHCs are nevertheless a useful alternative to relying on agency workers who may not know your business as well as you would want. Some of the criticism has been unfair as it ignores the fact that individuals on these contracts do enjoy protection under many of the employment laws which protect those on ‘regular’ employment contracts, such as under The Working Time Regulations 1998 and The Equality Act 2010.”


Hogan advises that the biggest pitfall is using these contracts in circumstances for which they were not intended: “To minimise the risk of employment claims and the risk of damage to reputation, an organisation should only use ZHCs where there is a legitimate need for a fl exible workforce, because the organisation cannot guarantee that work will be available and therefore does not want to hire individuals with guaranteed hours. If events pop up sporadically, or the requirements for the event change at the last minute (resulting in a greater staffi ng requirement) ZHCs may well be an effi cient and cost-effective way to engage staff. However, consideration still needs to be given to how the relationship should be structured and whether the potential benefi ts of using a ZHC outweigh the possible negatives. For example, the diffi culties of complying with pension auto-enrolment obligations with zero hours workers may prove too troublesome for some employers.”


At the time of writing, the UK Government indicated that it would issue a Consultation to initiate a discussion on the future use of these contracts, which should (if the Government has kept to its word) now be open for comment.


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COLUMN UKVMA


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