Zero Hours Contracts
If you have a zero-hours contract:
- Your employer does not have to give you any minimum working hours
- You do not have to take any work offered
Types of work that might use zero-hours contracts include:
- Bank work (for example, for the NHS)
- Casual hours (for example, students who only work during holidays)
- Care work
- Delivery driving
- Gig economy work (for example, delivering takeaway food or giving car rides)
- Hospitality work
- Warehouse work
Your rights under a zero hours contract
If you’re on a zero-hours contract you can be classed as an employee or a worker. By law, this means you have employment rights including:
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
- Paid holiday
- Pay and work related travel
- Pay for being on call
Depending on your contract and circumstances, you might be legally classed as an employee and have more employment rights. It’s a good idea to check your employment status matches with your contract.
If you’re an employee, you also have protection from being dismissed or experiencing any ‘detriment’ if you:
- Reasonably believe being at work or doing certain tasks would put you in serious and imminent danger
- Take reasonable steps over a health and safety issue, for example complaining about unsafe working conditions
- Inform your employer about your health and safety issue in an appropriate way
You could have a case for automatically unfair dismissal if you’re dismissed in these circumstances. Find more information here:
Detriment means treatment that leaves you worse off, for example:
- Your employer reduces your hours
- You experience bullying or harassment
- Your employer turns down your training requests without good reason
If you’re legally classed as a worker you also have protection from experiencing any ‘detriment’ if you:
- Reasonably believe being at work or doing certain tasks would put you in serious and imminent danger
- Take reasonable steps over a health and safety issue
- Inform your employer about your health and safety issue in an appropriate way
Working for more than one employer
If you’re on a zero-hours contract, by law, your employer must not:
- Stop you working for another employer by putting an ‘exclusivity clause’ in your contract
- Treat you unfairly if you do work for another employer
- Dismiss you for it if you’re legally classed as an employee
This law still applies even if your employer says you’ve broken your contract by working for another employer.
Rest breaks
Under zero-hours contracts, you have the same rights as other employees and workers to:
- Rest breaks at work
- Rest between working days or shifts
- Weekly rest periods
If your employment contract ends
A zero-hours contract could be an ongoing contract or a series of short contracts each time you do work for your employer.
It’s important to know which type of contract you have because if your contract ends, your employer must pay you:
- Any holiday you’ve built up and not taken
- Outstanding wages and notice pay (if you were employed for more than a month, or if your contract says so)
Continuous employment
When your employment has been continuous, with no break, you build up more employment rights. For example:
- For employees, you have the right to make an unfair dismissal claim after 2 years service, but this could reset if there was a break in employment
- For employees, you have the right to a statutory redundancy payment after 2 years’ continuous service
- An employee must be continuously employed for one month to be entitled to statutory minimum notice
It’s important to know if your employment has been continuous or if there has been a break. It might not be clear if there has been a break if you have short contracts each time you do work for your employer, or if you leave a job and return back to it. If you’re unsure, you should check with your employer.
What counts as a break in employment
If you’ve not provided work for a full calendar week (7 consecutive days from Sunday to the following Saturday), and the employment relationship is not governed by a contract of employment, that week may still count for continuity purposes. In some situations, it may not count as a break in employment. For example, when:
- You’re off work for up to 26 weeks with sickness or injury
- You’re seasonal or academic work regularly stops temporarily (a ‘temporary cessation’ of work)
- You and your employer have an agreement, such as a career break
If you’re unsure, you can ask your employer how it affects your contract.
Employers responsibilities for zero hours workers
The employer is responsible for:
- Zero-hours workers’ health and safety at work
- Paying their wages through PAYE, including tax and National Insurance (NI) deductions
Next steps
Take a look at the resources available below to guide you in more detail.