TLDR
- A zero hours contract promises no work, and the worker does not have to take the work you offer. Acas says a person's rights depend on whether they are an employee or a worker, not on the contract type, and you cannot bar a zero hours worker from taking other jobs.
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 adds three new rights for zero hours and low hours workers: a guaranteed hours offer, reasonable notice of shifts, and payment when a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice. GOV.UK's employer guidance says the new measures are not yet in force.
- In the Reddit sample we collected, none of 66 UK-tagged posts used the words "zero hours". Three accounts described being given no set hours, being called in at short notice or having hours cut. That is a very small sample, and it shows what a few people wrote, not how common any of it is.
A young kitchen porter in the UK wrote about their shifts in a Reddit post. Some weeks they were not booked at all. Other weeks they were asked to come in at short notice, on days they had already said they could not work. There was no set schedule, only a promise to call when they were needed. The post does not say what kind of contract they had. It does describe what a zero hours contract can feel like from the other side of the rota.
What is a zero hours contract in law today?
A zero hours contract is a casual agreement in which the employer does not guarantee any work. GOV.UK's guidance for employers, published on 28 August 2026, uses the term for several types of casual agreement. Its examples of when one may suit a business include special events, such as busy periods at a wedding venue, restaurant or bar. Acas adds the other half: you do not have to offer minimum hours, and the worker does not have to accept the work you do offer.
What the person is owed depends on their status. Acas says rights depend on whether someone is an employee or a worker, not on having a zero hours contract. GOV.UK suggests the contract includes whether they are an employee or a worker, how work is offered, whether it can be turned down and how the contract can end. Does each of your zero hours contracts say that?
What can't you do with a zero hours contract?
You cannot stop a zero hours worker from working for someone else. GOV.UK says the law bars exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts, so these workers can look for and accept work from other employers and can ignore any exclusivity terms in their contract. Acas goes further: an employer must not treat someone unfavourably or dismiss them for working for another employer, even if the contract has such a clause.
Cancelling a shift is less tightly drawn. Acas does not set a notice period, and says employers "should have a clear policy on cancelling work", including notice and any compensation. GOV.UK says to give as much notice as possible when offering work and not to cancel work at the last minute. As the guidance stands today, that is advice. When did you last cancel a booked shift, and how much notice did the person get?
Which rights still apply to zero hours workers?
Minimum wage, holiday and sick pay still apply, as far as a person's status allows. Acas says employers must pay the National Minimum Wage "no matter how many hours are offered or worked", and that workers and employees both get holiday pay, rest breaks and pay slips. The current rates are on GOV.UK's minimum wage page.
On holiday, GOV.UK says almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, and that people working irregular hours build up leave according to the hours they have already worked. For sick pay, GOV.UK's eligibility page lists three conditions for Statutory Sick Pay: the person must be classed as an employee, have done some work for you, and have been ill for at least one full working day. Agency workers may also be entitled.
What does the Employment Rights Act 2025 change for zero hours workers?
The Act adds new rights to the Employment Rights Act 1996 for zero hours and low hours workers. UKHospitality says the Act became law on 18 December 2025. In Part 1 of the Act on legislation.gov.uk, the zero hours sections are:
- A guaranteed hours offer (section 1). An employer must make a guaranteed hours offer to a qualifying worker after each reference period. A qualifying worker is on a zero hours contract or arrangement, or on a contract requiring a minimum number of hours, and meets conditions on the hours actually worked. What the offer must contain depends on regulations that are not on the page.
- Reasonable notice of a shift (section 2). An employer must give reasonable notice of a shift. Notice is presumed not reasonable if it comes less than a set amount of time before the shift, and that amount is left to the regulations. The employer must also give reasonable notice of a cancellation or a change to start or end times.
- Payment for a cancelled, moved or cut-short shift (section 3). An employer must pay a "specified amount" each time it cancels, moves or curtails a qualifying shift at short notice. The Act leaves "short notice" and the amount to regulations. Regulations cannot set the amount above the pay the worker would have earned for the hours lost, and a worker can complain to an employment tribunal.
- Agency workers (section 4). The guaranteed hours and shift rights are extended to agency workers through a schedule to the Act.
When do the zero hours changes start?
The three new rights are written into the Act, and none has a confirmed start date. GOV.UK's employer guidance says the law on the new zero hours measures is not yet in force and will change once the Act is fully implemented.
GOV.UK's timeline update, updated on 25 September 2026, lists "the right to guaranteed hours and the right to reasonable notice and short notice payments" under measures that will take effect in 2027, with "timings will be updated after consultation". So for those three rights, the year is 2027 and the date is not yet confirmed. The government's July 2025 roadmap put the zero hours measures, including applying them to agency workers, in 2027 as well. For agency workers, the update page we read does not give a separate date.
One thing to watch for on the legislation.gov.uk pages. Sections 1 to 4 each show "in force at 6.1.2026 for specified purposes", and the pages do not say which purposes. We have not treated that as the right being live, and neither does GOV.UK's guidance. Section 8, on exclusivity terms in zero hours arrangements, shows as in force from 6 January 2026.
What do UK hospitality workers say about hours?
In the Reddit posts we collected, hours are a small topic, and our sample is too small to say more. This is booteek's staff-hours study. It reads a sample of Reddit posts from worker and owner communities collected between October 2025 and October 2026, of which 66 are tagged UK. The sample comes from the Reddit archive, which answered only about a fifth of our planned searches, and none of the UK-specific communities were reached. The UK-tagged posts are UK people writing in communities that are mostly American.
We searched the 66 UK-tagged posts for zero hours, hours cut, cancelled or shortened shifts and rota notice. A strict search found 0 of 66. A wider search for any hours, shift, rota or schedule word found 40 posts, and we read the matched passage in each. Five posts described the situation we were looking for, and they came from three accounts. The same young porter's account appeared three times, in two communities.
- The kitchen porter described above: no set schedule, some weeks with no shifts and short-notice requests to come in.
- A UK bartender, whose summer hours were already reduced, said their hours fell from two shifts a week to one after they handed in their notice.
- A UK kitchen worker said hours were being cut because the place was being sold, so they could not pay the chefs to stay behind and help.
None of these accounts says what contract the person was on, so none of them is proof of a zero hours contract. One account is one account, and this does not show how common any of it is. What it does show is that a short-notice call-in, a week with no shifts and a cut in hours are things people write about. They are also what the new notice and cancelled-shift rights are written for.
Where does booteek help when you plan your hours?
And that is where booteek helps with one part of this: the Market Intelligence Report. It is a one-off report that uses AI to analyse 50 or more of your Google reviews, shows how fast you reply and how your replies compare with your competitors', and sets out an action plan. It does not write contracts, build rotas or give legal advice, and it cannot tell you how many hours to offer. For the contracts themselves, GOV.UK, Acas and your own adviser are the places to go.
What would your rota look like if every person on it asked you for a guaranteed hours offer tomorrow?
booteek's part is the review reading. The hours are yours to write down.
A rota with notice given and hours written down holds no surprises for the person on it.
Where do these figures come from?
- booteek's staff-hours study (booteek, measured 12 October 2026). The sample is 2,506 distinct Reddit posts from worker and owner communities, published between 9 October 2025 and 9 October 2026, from the Arctic Shift archive. 66 are tagged UK by the words in the post, such as pounds, pubs and UK place names, and tagging is a heuristic. The strict search (zero hours, hours cut, cancelled or shortened shifts, rota notice) found none of the 66. A wider search found 40, each matched passage read by hand: five posts from three accounts matched (the same text appeared three times, in two communities). It is a sample, not a census. Comments were not part of this study.
- Zero hours contracts: guidance for employers (GOV.UK, published 28 August 2026): the definition, the exclusivity ban, notice and cancelled shifts, and that the new measures are not yet in force. GOV.UK guidance
- Zero hours contracts (Acas, updated 28 March 2024): rights by status, exclusivity, minimum wage, cancelled shifts. Acas
- Employment Rights Act 2025 (legislation.gov.uk): sections 1 to 4 and 8 and their commencement notes. The Act
- Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update (GOV.UK, updated 25 September 2026): the 2027 entry for guaranteed hours, reasonable notice and short notice payments. Timeline update
- Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: our roadmap for delivering change (Department for Business and Trade, July 2025). Roadmap
- Holiday entitlement and Statutory Sick Pay eligibility (GOV.UK). Holiday and SSP
- Employment Rights Act: what it means for hospitality (UKHospitality): the date the Act became law. The detail is for members. UKHospitality
This is general information, not legal advice. The law and the dates change, so check the pages above before you act.