The Employment Rights Bill curbs 'exploitative' zero-hour contracts by ensuring fair hours, proper notice, and compensation for cancelled shifts.

The Government has proposed to put a ban on “exploitative” zero-hour contracts (not abolish them overall), ensuring workers are given the right to be offered a guaranteed-hours contract that reflects the hours they regularly work, based on a set reference period (yet to be defined, however the current proposal is 12 weeks), unless the work is inherently temporary.

Under the Bill, these types of workers will also be entitled to reasonable notice of shift changes/cancellations and to be compensated if shifts are cancelled or curtailed (likely won't be more than 7 days). This is the employee's choice to accept or refuse the guaranteed hours offer, during a “response period” (to be confirmed). This will be a recurring obligation for employers at the end of every reference period.