article: Tory Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith came under fire today after suggesting that zero-hours contracts should be re-named 'flexible hours'. Labour said the 'Marie Antoinette' moment by the Work and Pensions Secretary showed 'just how out of touch the Tories are' about the lives of working people. The future of zero-hours deals has become of the key issues of the election battle over jobs, with Labour pledging to ban exploitative deals. Tory Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith came under fire today after suggesting that zero-hours contracts should be re-named 'flexible hours' In a TV interview today Mr Duncan Smith said that zero-hours contracts were 'wrongly named'. He told the BBC: 'It should be flexible hours contracts, but only 2 per cent of the total workforce have those and they are mostly people like carers, who can't give direct time, and young people like students, so for them there is a reason for those.' Aides to the minister stressed that job satisfaction and work-life balance for those on zero-hours contracts were similar to other workers. Some 60 per cent of people on zero-hours contracts do not want more hours, they said. Labour and trade union leaders criticised the comments, saying it showed the minister was 'out of touch'. Shadow business Secretary Chuka Umunna told MailOnline: 'Iain Duncan Smith's 'Marie Antoinette' moment today has revealed just how out of touch the Tories are about the lives of working people. 'Instead of acknowledging the worrying growth of zero-hours contracts in our economy, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions today chose to defend them – arguing this morning that we should simply rename them as flexible hours contracts. 'Instead of pledging to tackle exploitation in the labour market he refused to even acknowledge there was a problem.' Labour leader Ed Miliband today launched his party's manifesto for young people in Lincoln . Labour has pledged to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, while unions have been pressing for them to be scrapped altogether. Under the controversial contracts, workers are often told at the end of the week how many hours they can work the following week. Launching Labour's manifesto for young people in Lincoln, party leader Ed Miliband said: 'Young people are three times more likely to be on zero-hours contracts than the rest of the population. 'Iain Duncan Smith has tried today to rename zero-hours contracts as 'flexible contracts'. We don't need to rename zero-hours contracts, we need to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, and that's what the next Labour government will do.' Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union, said zero-hours contracts meant 'misery' or workers and their families, leaving them on a 'hand to mouth' existence. 'This insecurity has exploded on David Cameron's watch, where we have an economy built on shaky jobs and chronic low pay.' TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'Whatever you call a zero-hours contract, it is still a recipe for insecurity and exploitation, where the boss holds all the power. 'Nothing sums up what is wrong with this Government's approach to work and how out of touch they are with the way most people live their lives than this celebration of the zero-hours contract. 'If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig. But as 'zero-hours contracts' is a bit of a mouthful, perhaps we could call them 'IDS jobs' in the future.' Shadow business Secretary Chuka Umunna accused the Tories of being out of touch . Iain Duncan Smith's 'Marie Antoinette' moment today has revealed just how out of touch the Tories are about the lives of working people. Instead of acknowledging the worrying growth of zero-hours contracts in our economy, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions today chose to defend them – arguing this morning that we should simply rename them as flexible hours contracts. Instead of pledging to tackle exploitation in the labour market he refused to even acknowledge there was a problem. The Tories have a history of Let Them Eat Cake moments. Today's comment comes from the minister who renamed the Bedroom Tax the 'removal of the spare room subsidy' and the party which insisted on calling the poll tax the 'community charge'. And three weeks ago David Cameron said that more people are using food banks because of better advertising – next he'll be rebadging them as Big Society supermarkets. This reveals an important truth about the Tories – they simply won't stand up for working people. Just a few weeks ago David Cameron admitted he couldn't live on a zero-hours contract. But the Tories seem happy for working people to be stuck in low-paid zero-hour contract jobs. It's becoming increasingly clear throughout this campaign that they will only stand up for a privileged few. The reality – that the Tories refused to acknowledge – is that for too many people zero-hours contracts leave them without a regular income and not knowing from one day to the next how much work they will get. The number of people with zero-hour contracts has increased by almost 20 per cent in the last year and surveys show that over half of young people on these contracts are on them because they could not find a job with regular hours. Companies such as Sports Direct are hiring the vast majority of their workers on zero-hours contracts, even though they have predictable and manageable fluctuations in demand and many of these employees reportedly work regular hours in practice. This is insecurity dressed up as flexibility. It's not acceptable, it's not fair and Labour will act to stop it. Labour will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts. With Labour, if you work regular hours for 12 weeks or more you will get a right to a regular contract. We will also give workers on zero-hours contracts new rights to be protected from employers forcing them to be available at all hours or cancelling shifts at short notice without compensation. Labour is clear: we don't need to rename exploitative zero-hours contracts. We need to ban them.​ .
highlights: Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary likened to Mary Antoinette .
  Says only 2% of workers on zero-hours deals and most are carers .
  Labour seizes on comments as proof the Tories are 'out of touch'
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