Zero-Hours Contracts: What Workers Need to Know About the 2027 Reforms

Written by Editor

Disclaimer: This article is for general information and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, employment, financial or welfare-benefit advice. Employment rights can depend upon an individual’s employment status, contractual arrangements and circumstances. Anyone experiencing a workplace dispute should consider obtaining independent advice from ACAS, a trade union, Citizens Advice or a qualified employment-law professional.

Are Zero-Hours Contracts Still Legal in the UK?

Zero-hours contracts remain legal in Britain, but major employment-law reforms are on the way. New rights to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts and compensation for short-notice cancellations are expected during 2027, while workers who genuinely value flexibility will still be able to reject guaranteed hours.

Despite headlines suggesting that zero-hours contracts have been banned or abolished, zero-hours contracts remain lawful as of September 2026.

Current government guidance, published on 28 August 2026, specifically confirms that the new zero-hours measures are not yet in force. The position will change as provisions within the Employment Rights Act 2025 are implemented.

The reforms are therefore not an immediate blanket prohibition on zero-hours working.

Instead, the government is attempting to tackle what it describes as one-sided flexibility, situations where an employer benefits from having workers available whenever needed while the worker receives little security over their hours, income or notice of when they will be required to work.

This distinction is important.

Zero-hours working can be exploitative in some circumstances, but in others it can provide genuine flexibility for people who do not want, or cannot commit to, fixed weekly hours.

What Is a Zero-Hours Contract?

A zero-hours contract is generally an arrangement where the employer does not guarantee a minimum amount of work.

Typically:

The employer offers work when it becomes available;
The worker is paid for the hours they actually work;
There may be no guaranteed minimum number of hours; and
Depending upon the contractual arrangement, the worker may be able to accept or decline work offered.

Government guidance describes zero-hours contracts as arrangements commonly used for casual or on-call work.

They are frequently associated with industries where staffing requirements fluctuate, including hospitality, retail, care, events and seasonal work.

Government guidance also recognises circumstances where such contracts may legitimately be useful, including seasonal demand, unexpected staff absence, new businesses and special events. However, it says they may be inappropriate where work is regular and predictable for a continuous period.

For example, if someone routinely works:

Monday – 9 am to 1 pm
Tuesday – 9 am to 1 pm
Wednesday – 9 am to 1 pm

week after week for a prolonged period, there is a legitimate question as to why that worker continues to have no guaranteed hours when the employer clearly appears to have an ongoing requirement for their labour.

What Is Changing Under the Employment Rights Act 2025?

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces significant reforms intended to provide greater predictability for people working under zero-hours and similar arrangements.

The main reforms concern three areas:

A Right to Guaranteed Hours

Qualifying workers will have the right to receive an offer of guaranteed hours based broadly upon the hours they have actually worked during a reference period.

The precise rules will be determined through regulations.

The government has indicated that it expects the reference period to be around 12 weeks, although the final detail is subject to the secondary legislation implementing the system.

This means that someone who is supposedly employed on “zero hours” but has, in reality, regularly worked approximately 25 hours each week may eventually have the right to be offered contractual hours reflecting that working pattern.

The purpose is to prevent businesses from benefiting indefinitely from a regular workforce while refusing to provide those workers with corresponding employment security.

Workers Will Not Necessarily Be Forced Onto Guaranteed Hours

An important part of the legislation is sometimes lost in headlines about the supposed “abolition” of zero-hours contracts.

A qualifying worker will be able to reject an offer of guaranteed hours.

The Employment Rights Act expressly provides for workers to accept or reject a guaranteed-hours offer, while government guidance confirms that qualifying workers who prefer zero-hours flexibility will be able to reject the offer and remain on a zero-hours arrangement.

That is important because flexibility is not inherently harmful.

For some people, it is exactly what they want.

A Right to Reasonable Notice of Shifts

Another major reform concerns the amount of notice workers receive before they are expected to work.

Workers can currently find themselves contacted at short notice and asked to attend work with very little opportunity to organise:

Childcare;
Transport;
Medical appointments;
Caring responsibilities;
Study;
Other employment; or
Their personal lives.

The Employment Rights Act introduces a statutory right for eligible workers to receive reasonable notice of shifts.

Detailed regulations will determine how the system operates and what will ordinarily be regarded as reasonable notice.

This could be particularly significant for workers who have historically felt pressured to remain constantly available despite having no guarantee that work would actually be offered.

Payment When Shifts Are Cancelled or Changed at Short Notice

Another particularly important reform concerns cancelled, curtailed or rescheduled shifts.

Imagine being told that you are working tomorrow.

You arrange transport, childcare or other commitments around the shift.

Then, shortly before you are due to attend, the employer sends a message saying:

“We don’t need you anymore.”

The worker may lose the expected wages despite having organised their day around the employer.

The reforms provide for eligible workers to receive proportionate payment where shifts are cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice.

This could substantially change the balance between employer flexibility and worker security.

Businesses may still need flexible staffing arrangements, but some of the financial consequences of last-minute decisions will no longer automatically fall entirely upon the worker.

When Will the New Zero-Hours Rights Begin?

As of 13 September 2026, the new zero-hours protections are not yet operational.

The government’s latest implementation timetable states that the right to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts and short-notice payments will take effect during 2027.

The exact timing is to be updated following consultation and the making of further regulations.

Workers should therefore be cautious about assuming that they can already enforce these new rights.

The Employment Rights Act has established the legal framework, but significant details still require secondary legislation and commencement.

What Rights Do Zero-Hours Workers Have Now?

Being employed under a zero-hours arrangement does not mean someone has no employment rights.

Government guidance confirms that zero-hours workers are entitled to statutory employment protections, although precisely which rights apply can depend upon whether the individual is legally classified as a worker or an employee.

Existing protections include entitlement to the National Minimum Wage and statutory annual leave.

Employers are also responsible for health and safety.

Another important protection concerns working for somebody else.

Employers cannot use an exclusivity provision to prevent a zero-hours worker from looking for or accepting employment elsewhere. Government guidance states that workers can disregard contractual clauses that unlawfully attempt to prevent them from taking other work.

This is important because an employer should not be able to say:

“We guarantee you no income, but you must remain exclusively available to us.”

Why Zero-Hours Contracts Can Be Problematic

The fundamental problem is not necessarily the words “zero hours”.

The problem is inequality of bargaining power.

A business may have hundreds or thousands of workers available.

An individual worker may rely upon one employer to pay the rent, energy bills, food and other essential expenses.

If that worker has no idea whether they will earn £100, £300 or £700 next month, financial planning becomes extremely difficult.

Unpredictable working arrangements can affect:

Housing security;
Household budgeting;
Childcare arrangements;
Transport;
Caring responsibilities;
Physical and mental well-being;
Access to credit;
Benefit calculations; and
The ability to take another job.

Someone may technically have the freedom to decline a shift, but the reality can be more complicated if workers fear that turning down work today will mean they are offered fewer shifts tomorrow.

The new legislation therefore includes protections intended to prevent workers from being subjected to detriment simply because they accept or reject a guaranteed-hours offer.

Zero-Hours Contracts and Disabled Workers

There is an important disability perspective that should not be overlooked.

For some disabled people, unpredictable employment can create considerable difficulty.

A person may need to organise:

Hospital appointments;
Medical treatment;
Rehabilitation;
Medication schedules;
Personal assistance;
Accessible transport;
Rest periods;
Pain management; or
Support from carers.

Being told at very short notice that they are expected to work may therefore create barriers that would not necessarily affect another worker in the same way.

Workers who meet the legal definition of disability may also have separate rights under the Equality Act 2010, including protection against disability discrimination and, where applicable, the duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments.

Zero-hours status does not remove equality legislation.

But Some Disabled People May Prefer Zero-Hours Flexibility

It is equally important not to assume that every disabled person wants fixed employment hours.

Some people live with fluctuating health conditions where symptoms can change considerably from one day or week to another.

Someone may feel capable of working several shifts during one week but need significantly more rest during another.

For them, genuine flexibility can provide a route into employment that a rigid full-time schedule cannot.

The same may apply to people undergoing treatment, managing fatigue or living with conditions where symptoms periodically flare.

The objective should therefore not be to remove choice.

It should be to prevent flexibility becoming exploitation.

A genuinely flexible arrangement should work for both parties rather than allowing one side to dictate when the other must make themselves available.

Zero-Hours Contracts and Unpaid Carers

Carers are another group for whom flexibility can be valuable.

Someone caring for a disabled child, partner, parent or other relative may not be able to commit to traditional working hours.

Government employment-status guidance itself acknowledges that zero-hours arrangements can offer flexibility for people combining employment with other commitments, including caring responsibilities.

A genuinely flexible contract may therefore allow a carer to earn money during periods when support is available.

However, unpredictability can work against carers too.

Being offered a shift only hours beforehand may leave them unable to arrange alternative care.

Having a scheduled shift suddenly cancelled may mean they have arranged and possibly paid for replacement care unnecessarily.

The future right to reasonable notice could therefore be particularly valuable.

Flexibility Should Work Both Ways

There is an important principle behind the debate.

If an employer wants a worker to provide flexibility, it is reasonable to ask whether the worker receives meaningful flexibility in return.

A fair arrangement might look like:

“We cannot guarantee regular work, but when shifts become available you are free to accept or decline them.”

A much more questionable arrangement would be:

“We guarantee you no work, but we expect you to remain available whenever we contact you and may stop offering shifts if you refuse.”

Those situations may both be described casually as “zero-hours work”, but the balance of power is very different.

Why Employers Use Zero-Hours Contracts

It is also important to acknowledge the legitimate business arguments.

Not every organisation can predict staffing requirements.

A restaurant may suddenly become extremely busy.

An events company may operate only when events are booked.

A retailer may require significantly more staff during Christmas.

A small business may not initially have enough predictable revenue to guarantee permanent hours.

Zero-hours arrangements can therefore enable businesses to respond to changing demand without carrying staffing costs when work genuinely does not exist.

Government guidance continues to recognise legitimate circumstances in which zero-hours arrangements can be appropriate.

The forthcoming reforms do not remove that commercial reality.

Instead, they attempt to distinguish genuine irregular work from situations where an employer repeatedly uses the same individual for predictable hours while continuing to deny that worker contractual security.

What Should Employers Be Doing Now?

Businesses using zero-hours workers should not simply wait until the new regulations arrive.

Employers could begin reviewing:

How many zero-hours workers they employ;
How regularly those individuals actually work;
Whether some workers effectively have established weekly patterns;
How much notice is normally given before shifts;
How often shifts are cancelled;
Whether contracts accurately describe the working relationship;
Whether workers understand that they may take work elsewhere; and
Whether existing staffing arrangements would remain workable under the new legislation.

Employers should also ensure that contracts and written statements are clear and transparent.

The government specifically advises that zero-hours arrangements should clearly explain matters including employment status, how work will be offered, whether workers can refuse work and how the relationship may be ended.

What Should Workers Do?

Anyone currently working under a zero-hours contract could begin keeping their own records.

This might include:

Dates and hours worked;
Screenshots of shift rotas;
Messages offering or cancelling work;
Payslips;
Changes to working patterns;
Instances where shifts were cancelled;
How much notice was provided; and
Copies of employment contracts and written statements.

When the guaranteed-hours regime becomes operational, evidence of someone’s actual working pattern may become particularly important.

Workers should also remember that the label placed on a contract is not necessarily the final word on someone’s legal employment status.

Employment law looks at the reality of the relationship as well as contractual terminology.

What About Agency Workers?

The reforms are also intended to cover qualifying agency workers, although the arrangements differ from those applying to workers engaged directly by an employer.

The Employment Rights Act contains separate provisions addressing guaranteed hours and shift protections for agency workers, and additional detail will be provided through regulations.

Agency workers should therefore follow the implementation of the regulations rather than assuming that the rules applying to directly employed staff will operate identically.

Are Zero-Hours Contracts Being Banned?

No…, not in the literal sense.

The more accurate description is that the government is introducing legal protections designed to end exploitative or one-sided use of zero-hours and low-hours arrangements.

Qualifying workers who establish regular working patterns are expected to gain the right to be offered corresponding guaranteed hours.

Workers will gain stronger protections concerning shift notice and last-minute cancellations.

But importantly, those who genuinely prefer remaining on zero hours will be able to reject a guaranteed-hours offer.

That means zero-hours working itself is not disappearing.

The balance of rights surrounding it is changing.

The Disability and Human Rights Perspective

Employment policy should recognise that workers are human beings rather than units of labour waiting to be activated whenever a business requires them.

People need to organise their lives.
Disabled people may need to organise treatment.
Parents need childcare.
Carers need replacement care.
Students need to attend classes.
Workers may have second jobs.
Families need to know what money will be coming into the household.

Predictability therefore has a direct relationship with dignity, autonomy and financial security.

At the same time, policymakers must be careful not to destroy forms of genuine flexibility that some disabled people, carers, students, older people and others actively choose.

The ideal employment system should provide choice without exploitation and flexibility without insecurity.

Conclusion

Zero-hours contracts have not been abolished.

As of September 2026, they remain a lawful form of working arrangement in Great Britain, and the new zero-hours provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 are not yet in force.

However, substantial change is approaching.

During 2027, qualifying workers are expected to gain new rights concerning:

Guaranteed hours based upon their actual working pattern; reasonable notice of shifts; and payment where shifts are cancelled, moved or shortened at short notice.

The reforms should therefore not be understood simply as a war against flexible working.

Properly implemented, they could create a distinction between flexibility that workers genuinely choose and insecurity imposed upon workers because it benefits the employer.

For disabled workers and unpaid carers in particular, that distinction matters.

Flexibility can open doors to employment.

But flexibility should never mean that a worker must permanently place their life on hold while an employer guarantees them nothing in return.