Right to guaranteed hours
Workers on zero-hours contracts have no right to predictable working patterns, hours are set and agreed in accordance with the terms of the zero-hour contract.
The ERA does not ban zero-hour contracts but introduces a new duty for employers to offer a ‘qualifying worker’ a guaranteed hours offer (GHO). This offer will either vary the existing terms and conditions or present a new contract. Qualifying workers will be workers who, during the reference period, will either have worked on a zero-hour contract or on a guaranteed hours contract (where the number of guaranteed hours is low) and their working pattern will have met certain conditions as to regularity or number. These conditions are to be confirmed in regulations as is the reference period although we expect it to be 12 weeks. The minimum number of guaranteed hours has also yet to be confirmed.
A worker can refuse the guaranteed hours offer after the initial reference period; however, the offer must be repeated after subsequent reference periods. The guaranteed hours offer must ‘reflect’ the hours worked in the reference period and must set out the days of the week and the times on those days when the employer must make work available or a working pattern of days and the times of days when the employer must make work available. The Guaranteed Hours offer can be a fixed term offer but only if that is reasonable because of the performance of a specific task, or until the occurrence of an event or there is only a temporary need for the work (this is intended to cover seasonal workers). We expect regulations which will confirm firstly how to determine whether a GHO reflects the hours worked in the reference period and what details will need to be included within the GHO itself.
A worker may present a complaint to the tribunal if an employer does not comply with this duty and fails to offer guaranteed hours to a qualifying worker. The House of Lords amended this provision on 14 July 2025 and shifted the responsibility to the worker to request the GHO. However, this was rejected by the House of Commons on 15 September 2025, and the original provision was restored. It is the employer who must offer a GHO to a qualifying worker.
The duty to offer a guaranteed hour offer (and to provide reasonable notice and compensation for cancelled or curtailed shifts without reasonable notice) can be excluded if;
- a relevant collective agreement contains terms that expressly exclude this right and the terms that expressly replace the excluded duty or right;
- the terms are incorporated into the contract of employment, and;
- the employer notifies the worker of the incorporation and effect of those terms.
A relevant collective agreement is a collective agreement that is in writing and made by or on behalf of one or more trade unions and the worker’s employer.
The Government has provided some anti-avoidance measures within its March 2025 amendments. The extension to agency workers is noted below. In addition, the amendment includes additional grounds of action for employees if their employer has tried to manipulate or avoid the requirement to provide a guaranteed hours offer. This may be by limiting the work available in the reference period to avoid triggering the obligation.
Following the March 2025 Government amendments, the right to be offered guaranteed hours will extend to qualifying agency* workers and follow the same process outlined above. It is the hirer who must make a guaranteed hours offer to an agency worker after the end of every reference period during which an agency worker was a qualified agency worker. A qualified agency worker, like a qualifying worker, must have worked for and under the supervision and direction of the hirer for a number of hours, ‘reference period hours’, the regularity and number of those hours fulfil the conditions (yet to be set) and during this period the agency worker was not an excluded agency worker. This definition has not been provided. The offer made by the hirer to the qualifying agency worker is an offer to enter into a worker’s contract which will require the hirer to provide the qualifying agency worker with work for a number of hours that reflects the reference period hours in the relevant reference period. If the agency worker accepts the GHO from the hirer, the agency worker is employed as a worker by the hirer.
The GHO to a qualifying agency worker must propose terms and conditions that, taken as a whole, are no less favourable overall than the terms and conditions that applied during the reference period. An amendment agreed in July 2025 provides that the acceptance of a GHO must not lead to a deterioration of an agency worker’s terms and conditions. Those terms and conditions relating to pay will have to comply with Conditions A – D in par 3 of Schedule A1. These are complex conditions and will require a good understanding of the pay terms of the agency workers and the comparable directly employed workers.
An agency worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal against the hirer if the hirer does not comply with the duty to make a guaranteed hours offer. In certain circumstances, the qualifying agency worker may bring a claim against the agency by limiting the agency worker’s hours during the reference period with the sole or main purpose of preventing the agency worker from qualifying for a guaranteed hours offer.
The duty to offer a guaranteed hour offer (and to provide reasonable notice and compensation for cancelled or curtailed shifts without reasonable notice) for agency workers can be excluded if:
- the agency worker is supplied to work for the hirer by virtue of a worker’s contract that the agency worker has with another person ‘the other party’;
- a relevant collective agreement contains terms that expressly exclude the duty or right and terms that expressly replace the excluded duty or right;
- the terms are incorporated in the contract;
- the other party notifies the agency worker in writing about these terms.
A relevant collective agreement is a collective agreement in writing made on behalf of more or more trade union and with the other party.
*an agency worker is an individual who has a worker’s contract or an arrangement with a work-finding agency and under that contract/arrangement, is supplied to work for and under the supervision and direction of another person, they are not employed by that other person and nor are they providing work to that other person as a contractor, customer or client.
The July 2026 roadmap states that these provisions will not be introduced until 2027.
The Government published a consultation on key areas for the GHO regime on 2 June 2026. The consultation addressed the following details.
- Qualification for right to GHO – e.g. what’s the threshold guaranteed number of hours for workers to be entitled to a GHO – Government prefer between 8 and 20 hours per week.
- Length of initial reference period and subsequent reference periods – Government is suggesting 12 weeks initial reference period and then longer subsequent reference periods with the potential with a break in between reference periods.
- What is regular work for the purpose of qualifying for a GHO – the Government has asked whether this test should require a worker to work each week for a number of weeks (number weeks yet to be determined) OR whether a worker should work for a number of weeks and a set minimum amount of hours within each week (number of hours yet to be determined).
- What would a GHO look like – the Government has set out whether should be the mean or median number of hours worked in the reference period.
- What is the definition of temporary need – if employers need to offer a GHO which is a short-term contract.
- Whether there should be exemptions – to the duty to make GHO.
The consultation opened on 2 June 2026 and closes on 25 August 2026. A copy can be found here. For further details on this consultation and its contents please go to our consultation landing page here.
Consultation on extending zero-hour worker rights to agency workers – consultation closed 2.12.2024.
Consultation response announced on 4 March 2025 and agency workers to be included in right to guaranteed hour offer.
Right to reasonable notice of shifts
Any notice provision will be included in the terms of an individual zero-hour contract and must comply with the general principles of reasonableness and not undermining the underlying trust and confidence between the parties. There is no blanket right to a certain period of notice.
An employer must give a worker reasonable notice of a shift where the worker is a zero-hour worker or working under a contract where the contract does not provide on what days or at what times the employer is to make work available to the worker. Reasonable is not less than a specified amount of time before the shift is about to start – we anticipate the ‘specified amount of time’ to be defined in regulations.
A worker may present a claim at tribunal should their employer fail to give reasonable notice of a shift. The tribunal may make a declaration to that effect and may make an award of compensation to be paid to the worker. The amount of compensation will be what the tribunal consider just and equitable in all the circumstances to compensate the worker for any financial loss suffered. The worker will be under a duty to mitigate their loss.
For agency workers, the right to reasonable notice of a shift applies unless the shift is an excluded shift. This definition has yet to be provided, however, it will depend on several factors including the amount payable for working the shift being more than a specified amount and the number of hours worked being more than a specified number.
The responsibility for providing this reasonable notice to agency workers rests with either the agency or the hirer.
Right to reasonable notice of cancellation, moved or curtailed shift
Any notice provision regarding the change of a shift any notice provision will be included in the terms of an individual zero-hour contract and must comply with the general principles of reasonableness and not undermining the underlying trust and confidence between the parties. There is no blanket right to a certain period of notice when a shift pattern is changed.
Where an employer has given notice of a shift to an employee, then they must give reasonable notice of a cancellation or any change to that shift. Again, we expect regulations to define a specified amount of time, and anything less than that time will be considered unreasonable.
A worker may present a claim at tribunal should their employer fail to give reasonable notice of a cancellation or change to a shift. The tribunal may make a declaration to that effect and may make an award of compensation to be paid to the worker. The amount of compensation will be what the tribunal consider just and equitable in all the circumstances to compensate the worker for any financial loss suffered. The worker will be under a duty to mitigate their loss.
For agency workers, the responsibility for providing reasonable notice of the cancellation of or change to a shift lies with either the agency or the hirer. Where the cancellation is the agency’s fault then they will have the responsibility to give notice and vice versa. In addition, the hirer is not responsible for failure to give reasonable notice if it gives notice to the agency of the cancellation or change to the shift so as to enable the agency to give reasonable notice and the agency fails to do so.
Right to payment for a cancelled, moved or curtailed shift
Any provision regards payment in lieu of a changed shift change of a shift will be included in the terms of an individual zero-hour contract and must comply with the general principles of reasonableness and not undermining the underlying trust and confidence between the parties. There is no blanket right to compensatory payment when a shift pattern is changed.
An employer must compensate a worker when a shift is cancelled or changed or curtailed at short notice. Short notice is defined as less than a specified amount of time before the shift and that specified time to be confirmed in regulations. Short notice was to be agreed following consultation, and the Government had indicated that it would not be more than seven days. The House of Lords tabled an amendment confirming that short notice would be 48 hours or less. This, however was rejected by the House of Commons in September 2025 and the Government confirmed that this matter would be a matter for consultation and be confirmed in regulations.
The amount of compensation is a specified amount, again to be confirmed in regulations although it will not exceed the amount of money the worker would have earned had they worked the original shift that has been cancelled, changed or curtailed.
A worker may bring a claim at tribunal should their employer failed to make the whole or any part of the payment due following a cancelled, moved or curtailed shift.
For agency workers, it is the responsibility of the agency to make a payment of a specified amount each time there is a cancellation or curtailment of a shift at short notice. This will not apply to excluded shifts (see details above).
Where an agency pays an agency worker in accordance with their right to compensation, that agency can recover from the hirer the proportion of the payment that reflects the hirer’s responsibility for the cancellation or curtailment of the shift but only by virtue of a pre-existing agreement to that effect between agency and hirer. A pre-existing arrangement is one that was entered into on or before the date 2 months after the ERA receives Royal Assent (this date will be 17 February 2026). Where there is no pre-existing arrangement, the parties will be able to negotiate further contractual provisions regards the recoupment of payments subject to further amendments to be made by the Government.
The July 2026 roadmap states that these provisions will not be introduced until 2027. It promises more exact timings will be provided after consultation.
The Government published its consultation on zero-hour contracts and the right to reasonable notice of shifts and compensation for short notice on 2nd June 2026.
It is consulting on the following issues;
- Eligibility – what will be the maximum threshold of hours over which workers will not be entitled to this notice
- What is reasonable?
- What factors should be taken into account if reasonable notice not given?
- Are there any exemptions
- What will constitute short notice (must be 7 days or less) and should there be a very short notice provision as well?
- How will short notice compensation be calculated? The Government are suggesting either a percentage of the money the worker would have earned or a percentage of the National Living Wage/NMW for the hours they would have worked.
The consultation opened on 2 June 2026 and closes on 25 August 2026. A copy can be found here. For further details on this consultation and its contents please go to our consultation landing page here.
Repeal of Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2003
Legislation which the previous Government introduced was due to come into force in September 2024 (12 months after Royal Assent of the Act). The Act gave workers on zero-hour contracts the right to request more predictable hours after they had been employed for a reference period. The employer was then able to accept the request or reject it on a number of grounds. The process was similar to the statutory flexible working request procedures.
This Act will not come into force.
The Act is repealed by the Employment Rights Act 2025.
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