The Employment Rights Bill was announced by the government on the 10 October 2024. It set out a large number of employment reforms that the new Labour government intends to introduce, including bans for exploitative contracts and notice periods for cancelled shifts, as we explain here.
Proposed changes to zero hour contracts
The proposed changes form part of the Employment Rights Bill, which includes major measures to tackle “one-sided flexibility” in zero-hours contracts.
As set out by the government, the reforms are:
- a proposal to ban “exploitive” zero hour contracts;
- a requirement to give reasonable notice of shifts and any changes to shifts; and,
- an obligation to make a payment to workers where shifts are cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice.
Given a number of sectors, particularly hospitality, rely heavily on the use of zero hour contracts and for which shift work is the norm, these reforms are going to be a huge change when they come into force. In acknowledgement that affected businesses will need time to prepare for the changes, the government has said the changes will take effect no earlier than October 2026.
Consultation
As part of the process to inform the government’s plans for the changes, on 21 October 2024 it launched a consultation on how reforms to zero-hours contracts should apply to agency workers. This closed on 2 December 2024.
The consultation set out to gather views specifically on the application of two main measures to agency workers:
- A right to guaranteed hours that reflect the number of hours regularly worked.
- To give workers the right to reasonable notice of shifts whereby employers must pay for any shifts cancelled or curtailed at short notice.
The government is said to be planning a further consultation at a later date on the implementation more generally.
We will report on the conclusions and findings of the Consultation as soon as these are published by the government.
