Zero-hours: have your say before the consultation ends

The government has launched a consultation on how the rights should operate in practice. It closes at 11:59pm on 25 August 2026 and will help inform the regulations that set out how the new rights will work in practice.

The new rights are expected to take effect in 2027, but important practical questions remain unanswered. Through our discussions with organisations across a range of sectors, we know that many of you are concerned about what the proposals could mean for your day-to-day operations. 

We are preparing a response to the consultation and want to hear from you. 

In this article, we explain the key proposals, highlight some of the main issues and questions that remain unanswered and outline how you can help shape the final rules.

What are the new rights?

Three new rights will be introduced for zero-hour workers, agency workers and ‘low hours' workers:

1. Qualifying workers will have the right to receive an offer of guaranteed hours based on the hours they have worked during a reference period. It is intended for workers whose contractual arrangement does not reflect the additional hours they regularly work. Workers can choose whether to accept or reject that offer.
2. Eligible workers will have the right to receive reasonable notice of shifts and changes to shifts
3. Workers will be entitled to payment where shifts are cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice

While the consultation explores a number of important points associated with these new rights, it provides limited detail on how the government envisages the new rights to work in practice and there are still many unanswered questions, including:  

How low is ‘low hours’?

The right to guaranteed hours will extend beyond workers on zero-hours contracts and agency workers to also include ‘low hours’ workers whose contractual hours fall below a statutory threshold. 

The government is consulting on where to set the threshold and has proposed a range of 8 to 20 hours per week. However, it has not indicated a preferred figure within that range.  

The threshold ultimately chosen could have a significant impact on how many workers fall within scope and, consequently, the operational and financial impact of the reforms. 

Will a 12-week reference period give a fair picture?

The right to guaranteed hours depends on what hours are worked during a reference period. The government wants this to be 12 weeks, after which you would need to assess whether you are required to make a guaranteed hours offer. 

A key question is whether a 12-week snapshot will accurately reflect your organisation's longer-term staffing needs. Demand may fluctuate throughout the year because of seasonal peaks, academic terms, events, project work or changing customer orders. A worker may work significantly more hours during a particularly busy period, even though those hours are not required on a permanent basis.  

The consultation seeks views on whether subsequent reference periods should last 12, 26 or 52 weeks, and whether there should be gaps between them. These decisions will have significant practical implications. Continuous reviews could create a substantial administrative burden, particularly if you need to monitor multiple workers on different review cycles.

The consultation also leaves important operational questions unanswered. It does not seek views on how long you have to make a guaranteed hours offer once a reference period ends, or how long workers should have to consider and respond to that offer. These issues will be critical to how the new rights operate in practice.

What happens once hours become guaranteed?

The consultation also highlights a wider concern for employers operating in sectors where demand rises and falls throughout the year. 

Once a guaranteed hours offer has been accepted, later reference periods cannot be used to reduce those contractual hours, even if demand subsequently falls. This means that hours offered during a temporary peak in demand could become a permanent contractual entitlement. 

The consultation does seek views on how the new right to guaranteed hours should operate in relation to seasonal work and temporary increases in demand. If these issues are likely to affect your organisation, now is the time to make your views known. 

What does ‘regular’ work mean?

To qualify for an offer of guaranteed hours, the worker must also satisfy a regularity test. The consultation considers two different approaches.

One option is a weekly distribution test, under which a worker would qualify if they worked in a minimum number of weeks during the reference period. For example, if the threshold were set at 8 weeks, a worker would qualify if they worked in at least 8 out of the 12 weeks in the reference period. 

Another option would combine the weekly distribution test with a minimum hours requirement, meaning the worker would need to satisfy both conditions before becoming eligible. 

However, the consultation does not express a clear preference for any particular approach or explain clearly how the different tests would operate in practice. 

Will workers actually want guaranteed hours?

One of the questions raised by organisations we have spoken to is whether workers will want to accept a guaranteed hours offer in practice. 

Many workers value the flexibility offered by existing arrangements because they fit around study, caring responsibilities, or another job. While some workers may welcome greater certainty, others may prefer the ability to choose when and how they work. 

Organisations are also concerned that arrangements designed to increase security could inadvertently reduce opportunities for overtime, temporary cover arrangements and short-term development opportunities.

When will the hours be worked?

One of the most significant gaps in the consultation is about when those hours should be worked. 

You may need staff to work evenings, weekends or during peak periods, even if they have historically worked at different times. Equally, a worker may have regularly worked around childcare, study commitments or another job and may be unable or unwilling to accept an offer that requires them to work at different times. 

This raises an important practical question. If a guaranteed hours offer reflects the number of hours worked but not the pattern or timing of those hours, will that be enough to satisfy the legal requirement?

The consultation provides very little detail on how guaranteed hours offers should take account of working patterns, availability or the timing of work. Without greater clarity, you may face significant uncertainty when deciding what constitutes a compliant offer.

Who should be excluded from the right to guaranteed hours?

The consultation asks whether any worker or circumstances should be excluded from the right to guaranteed hours. 

One example is workers who hold multiple contracts with the same employer, where at least one of those contracts already exceeds the relevant hours threshold. The government also suggests that you may be exempt from making a guaranteed hours offer in exceptional circumstances, such as where operations are disrupted by events like flooding. 

However, the consultation provides little detail about how these exclusions would work in practice.

How will notice requirements work in practice?

Many organisations support the principle of providing workers with greater certainty but have questioned how the new rules will operate when demand changes rapidly because of factors outside their control. Weather conditions, transport disruption, customer demand and major events can all have a significant impact on staffing requirements at short notice. 

What concerns you?

We are preparing consultation responses and want to include as much real-world evidence as possible. 

If you have concerns about any aspect of the proposals, or examples of how they could affect your organisation, we would like to hear from you. 

The more information you can provide, the greater the opportunity you have to influence the final shape of the new rules before the government introduces further regulations. 

Please contact Laura Willis if you would like to share your views.

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