a person sitting at a table in a room with a window

Zero-hours workers

Workers on zero-hours or low-hours contracts will be entitled to request guaranteed hours contracts that reflect their actual working patterns. Employers must make offers after each reference period to qualifying workers whose actual hours meet conditions to be specified in regulations. The offers must reflect worked hours and patterns, meet strict content requirements, and preserve overall terms or justify any less favourable terms. Employers can be excused in narrowly defined circumstances, but must proactively inform workers likely to qualify within tight initial windows.

a tables and chairs outside of a building

Employers could well face claims for a failure to offer the new contracts, defective offers, manipulation of hours to reduce offers or avoid qualification, missing or incorrect notices, and information failures. Compensation is subject to a capped maximum set by regulations.

The administrative burden is particularly acute for smaller employers lacking sophisticated HR information systems. A café employing 15 casual staff must now track reference periods individually, calculate whether each worker's hours trigger an offer obligation, draft compliant offers reflecting worked patterns, issue proportionality notices where terms differ, and maintain audit trails - all whilst managing day-to-day operations. For many SMEs, this represents a step-change in HR complexity.

Key implementation questions remain unresolved pending secondary legislation: what will constitute a "low-hours" worker who could be entitled to the guaranteed hours offer? It could be anywhere between two and 24 hours per week. Further, we are still awaiting clarity as to how guaranteed hours should be calculated; how to evidence reference period patterns; when limited-term contracts are "reasonable", what constitutes reasonable shift notice; and how compensation should be scaled. Without this detail, employers cannot build compliant systems.

The Act includes a statutory definition of "seasonal work", but further regulations must "have regard to" this definition. Does a university catering service employing term-time staff qualify for seasonal exemptions? What about event venues with predictable but irregular peaks? Without regulatory clarity, employers face a binary choice: over-comply and bear unnecessary costs, or risk tribunal claims for under-compliance.

“The administrative burden is particularly acute for smaller employers lacking sophisticated HR information systems.”