Reform of zero hours contracts

Implementation date: Not expected before 2026

The Employment Rights Bill includes provisions to reform rules on the use of zero hours contracts.

Under the Bill, workers on zero hours contracts, or contracts providing for a low number of guaranteed hours, will have the right to move to a guaranteed hours contract that reflects the hours they have regularly worked over a particular reference period. 

The Bill also includes provisions requiring employers to give workers reasonable notice of their shifts, and of a cancellation or change to a shift. Workers will be entitled to payment for a cancelled, moved or curtailed shift in qualifying circumstances. 

To avoid the potential loophole of agency work being used to avoid these measures, the rights will extend to agency workers. The Bill includes a framework for the application of the zero hours contract measures to agency workers.

Separate regulations will set out further detail and procedural requirements.

It is not yet known when these measures will come into force. In its Next Steps to Make Work Pay policy paper, the Government said that it anticipates that "the majority of reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026".