Guaranteed hours: what changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025

A right to guaranteed hours for zero-hours and low-hours workers is coming. It is not law yet, and everything below is proposal, not entitlement, until it takes effect. This applies if you count as a worker, not if you’re self-employedA working arrangement where you are in business on your own account rather than working under a contract of employment. The label your employer gives the arrangement does not determine your status —....

The core right

Once in force, workers on zero-hours contracts, or contracts below a set hours threshold, will have the right to be offered guaranteed hours reflecting what they’ve actually worked over a reference periodA reference period is the stretch of time your employer averages your working hours over to check whether you've stayed within the legal 48-hour weekly limit. It's normally 17 weeks, so a few heavy we.... The government’s preferred reference period is 12 weeks. The qualifying hours threshold is expected to land somewhere between 8 and 20 hours a week.

It’s a right to be offered, not a right to accept

You’ll be able to accept the guaranteed hours offerA right, not yet in force, for zero-hours and low-hours workers to be offered a contract reflecting the hours they've actually worked over a reference period, under reforms in the Employment Rights Ac.... Or you can stay on your existing zero-hours terms if that suits you better. Nobody can be forced onto guaranteed hours against their wishes.

Agency workers are included

The right is expected to extend to agency workers. Responsibility for making the offer is expected to sit mainly with the hirer, not the agency.

Shift notice

Employers will have to give reasonable notice of shifts, and of changes to them. Regulations are expected to set a presumed reasonable notice periodThe period of time either party must give before ending the employment relationship. Your contract will usually set a notice period, but the law also provides a minimum statutory notice period based o... somewhere between one and four weeks for directly engaged workers.

Getting paid when a shift is cancelled at short notice

Cancel a shift without enough notice, or cut it short, and your employer will have to pay you a percentage of what you would have earned. Exactly what counts as short notice is still under consultationA process your employer is required to carry out before making significant decisions that affect you, most commonly redundancy. It must be genuine, meaning your employer must listen and consider what ..., with proposals ranging from one to seven days. No payment applies if you asked for the change yourself, or you swap voluntarily.

How it will be enforced

The Fair Work AgencyThe UK government body responsible for enforcing a range of employment rights, established 7 April 2026 as an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade under the Employment Rights Act ... will be able to enforce short-notice payment failures directly, through the same process used for minimum wage arrears. An Employment TribunalAn independent court that hears disputes between employees and employers. It is free to bring a claim as a claimant, and most hearings take place in public. claim will remain available too. A workerA legal category that sits between employee and self-employed. Workers are entitled to certain rights including national minimum wage, paid holiday, and protection from unlawful deduction from wages, ... shorted this way could see the employer fined 50% of what’s owed, capped between £100 and £5,000.

Timing

The government is consulting on the detail of this reform until 25 August 2026. The right is expected to come into force sometime in 2027, though the government has not yet confirmed a specific month and says timings will be updated once the consultation closes. Treat this page as what’s coming, not what you can claim today.