Employment Rights Bill | Zero-Hour Contracts

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

January 2026 Update - Confirmed finalised rules on zero-hours contracts

The Act has finalised, and the final rules on zero hours and minimum hours workers include:

• Employers will need to make an offer of guaranteed hours to a qualifying worker after the end of the reference period (if the hours regularly worked exceed the minimum number set out in their contract).
• Reasonable notice of a shift, of a shift being changed and cancelled.
• This has been extended to agency workers.
• The House of Lords amendment to make this a right to request guaranteed hours, as opposed to have them did not make it into the final Act.
• Late amendments require the introduction of regulations permitting potential exceptions to the duty to offer guaranteed hours. This is intended to balance the benefits for workers who are eligible for such offers while ensuring that the guaranteed hours regime does not have a “significant adverse effect” on employers who face “exceptional circumstances.”
• This can be contracted out of, with a collective agreement reached through a Trade Union, so long as the terms are included within the contract.

What happens next?

The key details—such as eligibility criteria and the length of the reference period—will be defined in future regulations and are yet to be determined.

According to the Roadmap, these measures (including their application to agency workers) are expected to take effect in 2027.