Zero-Hours Contracts and Guaranteed-Hours Changes: What Employers Need to Know

Zero-hours and other "low-hours" contracts have been a fixture of UK and Irish workforces for years, prized by employers for flexibility and criticised by campaigners for pushing income insecurity onto workers. That balance is now shifting. The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025), which received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, sets out the most significant overhaul of zero-hours working in a decade — but much of the detail is still being worked out through consultation and secondary legislation. For HR teams, the risk right now isn't just non-compliance with a firm deadline; it's being caught flat-footed once the regulations land. This guide sets out what's already the law, what's proposed but not yet in force, and what employers should be doing today.

What is a zero-hours contract?

A zero-hours contract is an arrangement under which an employer is not obliged to offer a minimum number of working hours, and the worker is not obliged to accept any hours offered. In practice this covers a wide range of arrangements, from genuinely casual "bank" staff to workers who, despite the label, work broadly regular shifts week after week without the security of a guaranteed contract. The Office for National Statistics has consistently found several hundred thousand UK workers on zero-hours contracts as their main job, concentrated in hospitality, retail, social care and healthcare support roles. It's this second group — people working consistent hours without the corresponding job security — that recent and forthcoming reforms are aimed at.

Protections already in force

Before looking at what's coming, it's worth being clear about what already applies, because employers sometimes conflate settled law with proposals still in the pipeline.

Ban on exclusivity clauses

Since 2015, under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and the accompanying Exclusivity Terms in Zero Hours Contracts (Redress) Regulations 2015, it has been unlawful to include a clause in a zero-hours contract that prevents a worker from taking work with another employer. This protection was later extended to cover workers earning below the Lower Earnings Limit on low-income contracts more broadly. Any exclusivity clause in a zero-hours contract is unenforceable, and dismissing or subjecting a worker to detriment for breaching one is unlawful — this is settled, long-standing law, not a proposal.

The scrapped "right to request" and what's replacing it

The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 would have given qualifying workers a statutory right to request a more predictable working pattern after a qualifying period, mirroring the existing flexible working request framework introduced more widely by the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023. In practice, the 2023 Predictable Terms Act was never commenced: the incoming government confirmed it would not be brought into force, judging a "request" model — where employers retained wide discretion to refuse — too weak to tackle one-sided flexibility. It has effectively been superseded by the more far-reaching guaranteed-hours model now built into the ERA 2025, described below. HR teams should treat the 2023 Act as shelved, not live law, and should not build policies around it.

Separately, the general right to request flexible working from day one of employment (introduced via the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and in force since April 2024) does still apply to all employees, zero-hours workers included where they qualify as employees, but it is a distinct, general-purpose right rather than a zero-hours-specific one.

The big change: guaranteed hours under the Employment Rights Act 2025

The headline zero-hours reform in the ERA 2025 is a package of three linked rights for qualifying workers on zero-hours and low-hours arrangements:

• A right to guaranteed hours reflecting the hours a worker has actually and regularly worked over a reference period, so that a contract catches up with reality rather than leaving genuinely regular workers on a zero-hours footing indefinitely.
• A right to reasonable notice of shifts — of when a shift is scheduled, and of any change made to a previously scheduled shift.
• A right to compensation when a shift is cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice, so workers aren't left absorbing the financial cost of last-minute rota changes.

The Act also contains provisions extending equivalent protections to agency workers, to prevent employers sidestepping the new duties simply by engaging staff through an agency rather than directly.

What's confirmed versus what's still being worked out

This is the part employers most need to get right, because it is genuinely a moving picture. As of September 2026:

• The principle of guaranteed hours, reasonable notice and cancellation pay is settled law — it is written into the ERA 2025, which has passed through Parliament and received Royal Assent.
• The operational detail — the length of the reference period used to calculate guaranteed hours, the minimum notice period counted as "reasonable," the scale of cancellation payments, and exactly how agency arrangements are treated — is not yet fixed. The Government's "Make Work Pay: ending one-sided flexibility" consultation on these zero-hours measures ran from 2 June to 25 August 2026, and at the time of writing the Government is analysing responses and has not yet published its formal response or laid the secondary legislation (regulations) that will set the actual thresholds and periods.
• Employment law commentators generally expect these zero-hours provisions to take effect through secondary legislation from 2027, later than some of the ERA 2025's other day-one reforms, precisely because the reference periods, notice thresholds and compensation formulas require this additional consultation and drafting.

In short: the direction of travel is certain, but the specific numbers (how many weeks' reference period, how many days' notice, what percentage of pay for a cancelled shift) are not yet law and should not be presented to your board, your staff or your policies as final until the regulations are published. Treat any commentary quoting precise figures for these thresholds as an informed forecast, not confirmed law, until gov.uk or legislation.gov.uk publishes the regulations themselves.

What's in force now vs what's proposed

Practical steps employers should take now

Waiting for the final regulations before doing anything is a reasonable instinct but a risky strategy, given the scale of change involved for sectors that rely heavily on casual and zero-hours labour. Consider starting with the following now.

1. Audit your current casual and zero-hours workforce

Identify everyone engaged on a zero-hours, casual, "as required" or similar low-hours basis, and map how many hours each person has actually worked over recent months. Anyone working broadly consistent hours week after week is likely to fall within the future guaranteed-hours regime, so this group is your priority for review.

2. Review shift-scheduling and rota practices

Look at how far in advance shifts are typically published, how often they change at short notice, and how cancellations are currently handled (paid, unpaid, ad hoc goodwill payments). Tightening up rota discipline now — publishing shifts further ahead and reducing last-minute cancellations — will both improve staff relations immediately and reduce the compliance gap once notice and compensation rules take effect.

3. Check exclusivity and restrictive terms in existing contracts

Confirm no zero-hours or low-income contracts still contain exclusivity clauses — these have been unenforceable for a decade, yet legacy contract templates occasionally still carry them.

4. Prepare for a guaranteed-hours process, not just a compliance date

Guaranteed hours will likely require employers to proactively offer a contract with set hours once a worker qualifies, with a process for workers to accept or decline. Start thinking now about who in HR or operations will own this process, how offers will be tracked, and how it will interact with payroll and scheduling systems — this is an operational build, not a one-off policy update.

5. Train line managers and update policies and handbooks

Rota-setting and shift-cancellation decisions are usually made by operational line managers, not HR. Make sure managers understand why rota discipline matters now, and build in a policy review checkpoint for when the secondary legislation is published, rather than a single rewrite. Keeping records of hours worked, notice given and shifts cancelled will also matter — the same record-keeping discipline covered in our guide to holiday pay and leave record-keeping applies equally here.

6. Watch for the Fair Work Agency and enforcement route

The ERA 2025 establishes a Fair Work Agency with a role in enforcing some of these new rights, alongside the existing employment tribunal system. Where your organisation recognises a trade union or is likely to be consulted through collective channels, it's also worth reviewing how these changes intersect with wider obligations — see our guide to trade union rights and workplace access for related context.

7. Build in CPD for your HR and people team

Given how much of this area is still moving — consultation outcomes, draft regulations, and eventual commencement dates will all land over the coming months — this is a good candidate for structured CPD rather than one-off reading. Keeping your HR team's knowledge current through Learnsignal's CPD courses is a practical way to stay ahead of a fast-changing area of employment law.

Frequently asked questions

Is the right to guaranteed hours already law?

The principle is written into the Employment Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent in December 2025. However, the operational detail — the reference period, qualifying thresholds and process — depends on secondary legislation that had not been published as of September 2026, following a consultation that closed in August 2026. The right is not yet operative for employers to apply.

Do zero-hours workers already have any legal protection from being tied to one employer?

Yes. Exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts have been unenforceable since 2015 under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, regardless of the newer reforms discussed in this guide.

What happened to the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023?

It was never brought into force. The Government judged a request-based model insufficient and chose instead to legislate for a more direct guaranteed-hours right through the Employment Rights Act 2025, so employers should treat the 2023 Act as shelved rather than live.

When should employers expect the zero-hours provisions to actually take effect?

Most employment law commentators expect the guaranteed hours, reasonable notice and cancellation compensation provisions to come into force through secondary legislation from 2027, though an exact commencement date has not yet been confirmed. Employers should monitor gov.uk and ACAS guidance for the consultation response and draft regulations rather than relying on any single predicted date.

Zero-hours reform is one of the fastest-moving areas of UK employment law right now, and getting ahead of it means auditing your current arrangements, tightening rota practices, and building the knowledge to respond quickly once the final regulations land. Explore Learnsignal's CPD courses to keep your HR and people-management skills current as these reforms take shape.