Employment contracts and types of working - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

15 original exam-style questions - 6 pages of questions with a full mark scheme - free printable PDF.

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This topic is chapter 3 of GCSE Business: People and human resources Practice Book.

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4.3 Employment contracts and types of working

AQA 8132 · Calculator allowed · about 60 minutes

Total Marks

Name: _______________________________ Date: ____ / ____ / ______

Answer ALL questions in the spaces provided. Show your working for any calculation: method marks are available even if your final answer is wrong. Kestrel Home Care, used throughout this pack, is a fictional business. Assume a hypothetical hourly pay rate of £12.50 throughout, unless a question states otherwise.

Which one of the following best describes a 'part-time' employee?

A) An employee who works fewer hours per week than a full-time employee at the same business
B) An employee who is self-employed
C) An employee who only works during school holidays
D) An employee with no written contract at all

(Total for Question 1 is 1 mark)

Which one of the following best describes a 'zero-hours contract'?

A) A contract that guarantees exactly zero pay for the first week
B) A contract where the employer is not obliged to offer a minimum number of hours, and the worker is not obliged to accept all hours offered
C) A contract that lasts for zero months
D) A contract only available to workers aged under 18

(Total for Question 2 is 1 mark)

State two types of employment contract, other than full-time and part-time, that Kestrel Home Care could offer its care workers.

(Total for Question 3 is 2 marks)

State two examples of flexible working, other than part-time work or zero-hours contracts, that Kestrel Home Care could offer its office-based staff.

(Total for Question 4 is 2 marks)

UK law requires an employer to give an employee a written statement setting out the main terms of their employment, such as pay, hours and holiday entitlement.

(a)State the general legal requirement on Kestrel Home Care regarding written terms of employment.(2)

(b)State one item this written statement would typically include.(1)

(Total for Question 5 is 3 marks)

Assume a hypothetical hourly pay rate of £12.50. A full-time care worker at Kestrel Home Care works 37.5 hours per week, for 52 weeks a year.

(a)Calculate this worker's weekly pay.(1)

(b)Using your answer to part a, calculate this worker's annual pay.(2)

(Total for Question 6 is 3 marks)

A part-time care worker at Kestrel Home Care, on the same hypothetical rate of £12.50 an hour, works 20 hours per week for 52 weeks a year.

(a)Calculate this worker's weekly pay.(1)

(b)Using your answer to part a, calculate this worker's annual pay.(2)

(Total for Question 7 is 3 marks)

The full-time worker from question 6 works 4 hours of overtime in one week, paid at time-and-a-half (1.5 times the hypothetical hourly rate of £12.50).

(a)Calculate this worker's overtime pay for the 4 hours.(2)

(b)Using your answers to question 6a and part a, calculate this worker's total pay for the week, including overtime.(1)

(Total for Question 8 is 3 marks)

Explain one reason, other than cost, why Kestrel Home Care might still choose to employ two part-time job-share workers (question 13b) rather than one full-time worker (question 13a).

(Total for Question 9 is 3 marks)

Explain one advantage to Kestrel Home Care of using zero-hours contracts for some of its care workers.

(Total for Question 10 is 3 marks)

Explain one disadvantage to a care worker of being employed on a zero-hours contract.

(Total for Question 11 is 3 marks)

A zero-hours care worker, on the same hypothetical rate of £12.50 an hour, works 15 hours in one week and 28 hours the following week.

(a)Calculate this worker's pay in the first week (15 hours).(1)

(b)Calculate this worker's pay in the second week (28 hours).(1)

(c)Using your answers to parts a and b, calculate the difference between this worker's pay in the two weeks.(1)

(Total for Question 12 is 3 marks)

Kestrel Home Care also pays a fixed weekly on-cost of £40 per employee (covering employer national insurance-type contributions and administration), regardless of how many hours that employee works.

(a)Using your answer to question 6a, calculate the full-time worker's total weekly cost to Kestrel Home Care, including the £40 on-cost.(1)

(b)Kestrel Home Care is considering replacing this full-time worker with two part-time workers job-sharing the same role, each on the 20-hour week from question 7a, each also carrying the £40 on-cost. Calculate the combined weekly cost to Kestrel Home Care of the two job-share workers.(2)

(c)Using your answers to parts a and b, calculate how much more expensive the job-share arrangement is to Kestrel Home Care than employing the one full-time worker.(1)

(Total for Question 13 is 4 marks)

Explain why Kestrel Home Care must be careful not to discriminate against older or disabled applicants when deciding which staff are offered permanent, guaranteed-hours contracts.

(Total for Question 14 is 3 marks)

Zero-hours contracts let Kestrel Home Care flex its staffing cheaply (question 10) but leave care workers with unpredictable income, shown by the £162.50 difference between two weeks' pay for the same worker (question 12c). Guaranteeing a minimum number of hours would give workers more certainty but would remove some of this flexibility.
Recommend whether Kestrel Home Care should convert its zero-hours care workers to contracts with a guaranteed minimum number of hours per week. Justify your answer using the figures and points made earlier in this pack.

(Total for Question 15 is 9 marks)

Mark scheme · 4.3 Employment contracts and types of working

Question 1

B1 A cao
Answer: A

Question 2

B1 B cao
Answer: B

Question 3

B1 one acceptable type, e.g. a permanent contract, or a temporary/fixed-term contract
B1 a second acceptable type, e.g. a zero-hours contract, or a self-employed/freelance arrangement
Answer: Any two, e.g. permanent; temporary/fixed-term; zero-hours; self-employed/freelance.

Question 4

B1 one acceptable example, e.g. flexitime (choosing start/finish times around core hours)
B1 a second acceptable example, e.g. job sharing, compressed hours, or working from home for suitable roles
Answer: Any two, e.g. flexitime; job sharing; compressed hours; working from home for suitable roles.

Question 5

(a) B1 identifies that Kestrel Home Care must provide each employee with a written statement of the main terms of their employment
(a) B1 identifies that this must be given to the employee, not just agreed verbally
(a) Answer: Kestrel Home Care must provide each employee with a written statement of the main terms of their employment, not just a verbal agreement.
(b) B1 e.g. rate of pay, hours of work, job title, holiday entitlement, or notice period
(b) Answer: For example, rate of pay.

Question 6

(a) B1 £468.75 cao
(a) Answer: £468.75.
(b) M1 468.75 x 52 seen (ft from part a)
(b) A1 £24,375 cao
(b) Answer: £24,375.

Question 7

(a) B1 £250 cao
(a) Answer: £250.
(b) M1 250 x 52 seen (ft from part a)
(b) A1 £13,000 cao
(b) Answer: £13,000.

Question 8

(a) M1 4 x (12.50 x 1.5) seen
(a) A1 £75 cao
(a) Answer: £75.
(b) B1 £543.75 cao (ft from question 7a and part a)
(b) Answer: £543.75.

Question 9

B1 identifies the point, e.g. two workers can cover a client's care visits even if one of them is on holiday or off sick
B1 develops the point, e.g. this reduces the risk of a client missing a scheduled visit altogether
B1 links clearly to an outcome, e.g. improving reliability and quality of care for clients, even though question 11c shows it costs Kestrel Home Care £71.25 more per week
Answer: Two job-share workers can cover a client's visits even if one is on holiday or sick, reducing the risk of a missed visit and improving reliability of care, even though it costs £71.25 more per week (question 11c).

Question 10

B1 identifies the advantage, e.g. Kestrel only pays workers for the hours they actually work
B1 develops the point, e.g. this lets Kestrel flex its staffing up or down quickly as client demand for home visits changes
B1 links clearly to an outcome, e.g. reducing wasted staff costs during quieter periods
Answer: Kestrel only pays workers for hours actually worked, letting it flex staffing up or down as client demand for home visits changes, reducing wasted staff costs during quieter periods.

Question 11

B1 identifies the disadvantage, e.g. the worker has no guarantee of a minimum number of hours, or income, each week
B1 develops the point, e.g. this makes it hard for the worker to plan a regular budget or apply for things like a mortgage that expect a stable income
B1 links clearly to an outcome, e.g. this financial uncertainty could lead the worker to leave for a job with guaranteed hours
Answer: The worker has no guaranteed minimum hours or income, making it hard to budget or apply for things like a mortgage that expect stable income, which could lead the worker to leave for a job with guaranteed hours.

Question 12

(a) B1 £187.50 cao
(a) Answer: £187.50.
(b) B1 £350 cao
(b) Answer: £350.
(c) B1 £162.50 cao (ft from parts a and b)
(c) Answer: £162.50.

Question 13

(a) B1 £508.75 cao (ft from question 7a)
(a) Answer: £508.75.
(b) M1 (250 + 40) x 2 seen (ft from question 8a)
(b) A1 £580 cao
(b) Answer: £580.
(c) B1 £71.25 cao (ft from parts a and b)
(c) Answer: £71.25.

Question 14

B1 identifies that age and disability are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010
B1 develops the point, e.g. it is unlawful to base a decision about who gets guaranteed hours on these characteristics rather than on job-related criteria such as skills, performance or client feedback
B1 links clearly to an outcome, e.g. discriminating in this way could lead to legal action against Kestrel Home Care and damage its reputation
Answer: Age and disability are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, so decisions about guaranteed hours must be based on job-related criteria such as skills or performance, not these characteristics; discriminating unlawfully could lead to legal action and damage Kestrel's reputation.

Question 15

Level 1 (1-3): Makes simple, undeveloped comments about the zero-hours decision, with little or no use of the pack's figures and no clear recommendation.
Level 2 (4-6): Gives a developed argument for or against guaranteeing minimum hours, using some of the pack's figures, but does not fully weigh both sides or reach a clearly justified recommendation.
Level 3 (7-9): Weighs the evidence for and against guaranteeing minimum hours, using the pay-variation, on-cost and flexibility figures from this pack, and reaches a justified recommendation supported by that analysis.
Indicative content:
- For guaranteeing minimum hours: the £162.50 swing in a single worker's pay between two weeks (question 9c) shows real income unpredictability, which question 6 links to workers leaving for jobs with guaranteed hours, risking Kestrel's staffing.
- For guaranteeing minimum hours: more predictable staffing could improve continuity of care for clients, similar to the reliability benefit of job-share cover identified in question 12.
- Against guaranteeing minimum hours: question 5 shows zero-hours contracts let Kestrel flex staffing cheaply to match variable client demand for home visits; a guaranteed minimum removes this flexibility and could leave Kestrel paying for hours with no client visits scheduled.
- Against guaranteeing minimum hours: question 11 shows that offering more guaranteed-hours staffing (such as the job-share option) already costs £71.25 a week more than a single full-time worker; a wider move to guaranteed hours would add further ongoing cost.
- Judgement: a reasonable recommendation is that Kestrel Home Care should offer a modest guaranteed minimum (rather than converting every zero-hours contract fully), keeping some flexible zero-hours capacity for genuinely variable demand while giving its most regularly used care workers the income stability that questions 6 and 9c show they currently lack.

Employment contracts and types of working - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

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4.3 Employment contracts and types of working

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