Zero hours contract rights: what you are entitled to

A zero hours contract means your employer does not guarantee you any hours, and you do not have to accept the hours offered. It does not mean you have zero rights. Many people on these contracts are underpaid holiday, wrongly denied sick pay or quietly "zeroed" for complaining.

Are you a worker or an employee?

Your rights depend on your employment status, not the label on your contract. Most zero hours staff are at least workers. Some are employees, particularly where there is a regular pattern of work over a long period and an expectation that shifts are offered and accepted.

Employee status matters because it unlocks rights such as unfair dismissal protection, statutory redundancy pay and minimum notice.

Rights you have as a worker

• National Minimum Wage for all time worked, including some travel between assignments and time spent on required training
• Paid holiday, 5.6 weeks a year pro rata
• Rest breaks and working time limits
• Statutory Sick Pay. Since 6 April 2026 SSP is paid from the first day of sickness and there is no lower earnings limit. You get the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of your average weekly earnings. See statutory sick pay.
• Protection from discrimination, including a fair share of shifts. Being dropped from the rota after announcing a pregnancy, for example, is pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
• Itemised payslips and a written statement of terms from day one
• The right to be accompanied at disciplinary and grievance hearings: see right to be accompanied

Family pay such as statutory maternity pay can also apply if you meet the earnings and service tests.

Holiday pay: the 12.07% rule

If you work irregular hours, your holiday builds up at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. Your employer can either let you take paid time off or pay "rolled-up" holiday pay of at least 12.07% on top of your pay, shown separately on your payslip.

Example: you earn £600 in a month. Rolled-up holiday pay should be at least £72.42 that month (£600 x 12.07%). If your payslip shows no holiday line at all, ask why.

Common problems we see

• No holiday pay at all, or holiday paid at a flat rate that ignores overtime and premiums
• No SSP, often because the employer still applies the old waiting days or earnings threshold, both scrapped from April 2026
• Unpaid time, such as compulsory briefings before a shift or waiting on site, pushing pay below minimum wage
• Being treated as self-employed when in reality you are a worker

Each of these can be claimed back, and holiday and wage claims can stretch back over a series of underpayments.

You can work for someone else

Exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts are unenforceable. Your employer cannot stop you working for another employer, and since 2022 that protection also covers low-paid workers earning at or below the lower earnings limit. Being dismissed or penalised for working elsewhere is unlawful.

Can they just stop giving you shifts?

Under current law, yes in principle, which is the core problem with zero hours work. But:

• If shifts are cut because you complained about pay, asked for holiday, raised a grievance or got pregnant, that can be unlawful detriment or discrimination
• If you are an employee and your work dries up permanently, that may be a dismissal, potentially an unfair dismissal or a redundancy

What is changing

The Employment Rights Act 2025 contains major zero hours reforms, which the government expects to commence in 2027:

• A right to be offered guaranteed hours reflecting the hours you regularly work over a reference period
• Reasonable notice of shifts, and of cancellations or changes
• Payment for shifts cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice

Much of the detail, including the reference period and notice thresholds, will be set in regulations. None of these rights are in force yet as of October 2026, so treat any claim that they are as wrong.

When your contract keeps changing

If you have a contract with set hours and your employer tries to move you onto a zero hours contract, that is a contract change that needs your agreement. See contract changes and fire and rehire. If you would like more predictable hours with your current employer and you are an employee, a flexible working request is one route to ask formally.

Get advice

If you have lost shifts after speaking up, been underpaid holiday or been told you have no rights, a specialist can check your status and your options. Tell us about your situation and Match My Solicitor will connect you with a vetted employment solicitor, free, within 24 hours.