A LEADING university condemned for its high use of controversial zero-hours contracts for workers has agreed to "wipe out" the practice.

Edinburgh University moved after lecturers' and academics' body the University and College Union exposed the ancient seat of learning for heavy use of the pay policy that is criticised for failing to guarantee regular payment more. Edinburgh uses more of the contracts than any other university in the UK.

More than 2000 out of about 8000 academic staff at Edinburgh were working on such deals and thousands more across the ­country are also said to be under the contracts.

In colleges and universities the policy has sometimes been used to aid flexibility in departments where staff and student numbers vary year to year. The contracts tell staff how many hours they may be required to work, but the employer has no obligation to provide that employment.

Under these contracts universities call on individuals when they are required.

Similar contracts are being scrutinised in employment sectors including social work, the NHS, child education and more broadly in local and national government.

The workers' union and the National Union of Students (Scotland) called for the policy to be abandoned. The UCU report found that more than half of UK universities used zero-hour contracts but the numbers of staff employed differed.

Very few education organisations that were examined in the study had specific rules on how the policies are implemented. Separate research has suggested that one in four workplaces use zero-hour contracts.

The Edinburgh turn-around came after the workers and researchers' union findings were given a cautious welcome yesterday.

Mary Senior, UCU Scottish ­official, said: "We will continue to campaign against exploitative 'casual' contracts in higher education and are eager to work with any other universities who wish to demonstrate they are good employers."

Eilidh Fraser, Edinburgh University's deputy director of human resources said it would be "working in partnership with our trade unions to review our use of 'hours to be notified' contracts and maintain our good employment practices, pay and conditions for all our staff".

She added: "This builds on our long-standing positive relations with the unions."

The UCU said it had broader concerns over the "casualisation" of jobs in universities, while NUS Scotland President Gordon Maloney said such arrangements are bad for staff and students".

He said: "Many casual ­employees at Scottish universities are postgraduate students who often have no way of knowing how many hours they will have from month to month, and therefore if they'll be able to support their studies.

"Flexibility in the workplace is important, particularly for students, but there should never be a trade-off between flexibility and security or rights at work."

He added: "Staff with little job security could negatively affect teaching quality. If the quality at Scottish universities is to remain high, we need to see teaching remain valued.

"We now need guarantees that no jobs will be lost through this transition and that teaching quality will be protected, and every other university follow Edinburgh's lead."