The government is seeking views in a consultation paper issued last week (2 June 2026) and closing 25 August 2026 on the Regulations needed to implement the zero hours measures in the Employment Rights Act 2025.
The government is not banning zero hours contracts; its stated aim is to end one-sided flexibility while preserving genuine business flexibility. The reforms extend to England, Wales and Scotland; employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland.
The central proposal is a new right to guaranteed hours. Workers on zero hours contracts, or on contracts below a specified hours threshold, qualify if they regularly work more during a ‘reference period’. They can accept an offer reflecting their actual pattern or decline and stay as they are.
The government’s preferred hours threshold, for workers with some guaranteed hours, is between 8 and 20 hours per week. The government says this is the range most likely to balance worker protection against employer cost and burden.
The preferred initial reference period is 12 weeks, giving prompt access while establishing a reliable picture of normal hours. Other reference period lengths (12, 26 or 52 weeks) remain open. The consultation also asks how subsequent reference periods should work, including whether they should run back-to-back or with gaps, which will be critical for employers’ ongoing record-keeping and administration.
On regularity, a worker qualifies only if their hours were spread regularly enough across the reference period. Option A tests this by the number of separate weeks worked (say 8 of 12). Option B adds a second requirement: a minimum number of hours worked in excess of contracted hours (say 96 across 12 weeks). Option B is harder to meet and would prevent occasional overtime alone from triggering the right, favouring employers. No preference is stated.
Seasonal and genuinely temporary work is a significant issue. An employer need not make a guaranteed hours offer where a worker is on a limited-term contract shorter than the reference period, provided that contract was reasonable. The Act treats a limited term as reasonable on three grounds: the worker is needed only for a specific task that then ends, only until a particular event occurs or does not occur, or to meet a ‘temporary need’ to be defined in regulations. The government’s concern is that the first two grounds may not capture demand that simply falls away seasonally, so it seeks views on whether a broader definition of ‘temporary need’ is required.
How many hours the worker should be guaranteed turns on how the guaranteed hours figure is derived from the reference period. The choice is between a mean average, where every hour worked counts equally, and a median average, where unusually high or zero-hours weeks carry less weight and the figure better reflects a typical week. The government also asks whether employers should have an ‘adjustment margin’, a small fixed amount (say two hours) or percentage (say 10%) they could add or subtract to align an offer with normal shift lengths or to guard against minor calculation errors. No preference is identified on either question.
Agency workers are in scope, with hirers usually liable for guaranteed hours offers, though the consultation explores shifting responsibility to agencies or intermediaries in some cases.
Reasonable notice of shifts: Eligible workers must be given reasonable notice of shifts and of changes to them. Regulations will set a presumed reasonable period as the tribunal’s starting point. Where an employer gives less than that, it must show the shorter notice was reasonable; where it gives more, the worker must show it was not. The consultation canvasses one to four weeks for directly engaged workers, and from under five days up to four weeks for agency workers. It also seeks views on which circumstances should justify longer or shorter notice. Failure to give reasonable notice gives the worker a tribunal claim for the loss suffered.
Payment for shifts cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice: A payment falls due when the employer cancels, curtails or moves a shift at short notice. What ‘short notice’ means is the subject of consultation; the government canvasses options of 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 days, with the Act preventing the short-notice period from exceeding 7 days. The government is considering a separate ‘very short notice’ tier carrying a higher payment. The amount would be a percentage of earnings, with two bases offered: the worker’s actual pay for the shift, or pay calculated at the National Living or Minimum Wage rate. No payment is due where the worker initiates the change, fails to attend, or swaps a shift voluntarily. The government also seeks views on exceptions, for instance extreme weather or a power outage. For agency workers, agencies make the payment and may recoup it from hirers in defined circumstances.
Enforcement: The government proposes the new Fair Work Agency enforce short notice payments through the Notice of Underpayment regime (as well as through employment tribunals), since non-payment is a discrete, measurable event. Guaranteed hours and reasonable notice involve more evaluative judgements and would stay solely with the employment tribunal. Its preferred penalty is 50% of arrears, with a minimum of £100 per case and a maximum of £5,000 per worker; lower than the standard regime to reflect that this is a new obligation.