Zero-Hours Workers Can Demand a Guaranteed Contract From Monday

From 7 April 2026, if a worker has been doing regular, consistent hours for 12 weeks, you must offer them a guaranteed-hours contract on request. The Fair Work Agency launches the same day — and zero-hours abuse is their explicit year-one enforcement priority.

You may have already triggered the 12-week clock without realising it.

This guide explains exactly what counts as a "regular pattern," what the offer must include, what happens if you refuse — and the five things to do before Monday.

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What's Actually Changing on April 7?

Zero-hours contracts are not banned. You can still hire workers without guaranteeing hours — for genuinely casual, ad-hoc work.

What's changed is that workers now have a legal right to request a fixed-hours contract once they've established a regular working pattern over a 12-week reference period.

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025), if a worker can demonstrate they have worked a regular, recurring pattern of hours — same shifts, same days, broadly the same structure over 12 weeks — they are entitled to a written offer of guaranteed hours reflecting that pattern.

The employer cannot:

• Reduce the worker's hours in response to the request
• Remove them from the rota
• Terminate their engagement
• Treat them less favourably in any way

Any of the above is automatic unfair dismissal — with no qualifying period. The worker doesn't need two years of service. They don't need any service at all.

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The 12-Week Clock: Are You Already Exposed?

The 12-week reference period doesn't start on 7 April. It's based on working history.

A worker who has been on your rota consistently since January — turning up to the same Tuesday and Thursday shifts every week — may already have 12 weeks of regular hours behind them. From Monday, they can make a formal request.

What counts as a "regular pattern"?

The legislation doesn't require identical hours every single week. It looks for:

• Consistent days or shifts (e.g. always works weekends)
• Broadly consistent hours (e.g. 20-25 hours every week)
• Recurring shifts over the reference period
• A predictable working relationship that a court would recognise as regular

Hospitality, retail, care and cleaning businesses are most exposed because they routinely use rolling zero-hours arrangements for staff who in practice work fixed patterns week after week.

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What the Guaranteed-Hours Offer Must Contain

If an eligible worker makes a request, you are required to respond in writing within a reasonable timeframe. The offer must:

1. Reflect their actual working pattern — hours and days consistent with what they've been working
2. Be a genuine written contract — not a verbal assurance
3. Specify the hours guaranteed — you cannot offer a contract that says "approximately 20 hours" when the worker has worked exactly 24 hours for 12 weeks

The worker does not have to accept the offer. They can decline and remain on a zero-hours arrangement. But you must make the offer when requested.

What if you can't offer those hours going forward?

If business conditions have genuinely changed, you may offer reduced guaranteed hours — but you must be able to demonstrate a legitimate business reason. "We'd prefer the flexibility" is not a legitimate reason. A documented reduction in customer demand or workload may be.

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What the Fair Work Agency Will Look For

The Fair Work Agency launches on 7 April with walk-in inspection powers. They can enter your premises without prior notice, request payroll records, rotas, and employment documentation.

Zero-hours arrangements are listed as an explicit enforcement priority in their published Year One guidance.

What they'll examine:

• Rotas — do patterns show regular recurring shifts?
• Payroll records — consistent weekly hours over extended periods
• Written policies — do you have a zero-hours policy? Has it been communicated?
• Worker complaints — any refusal of a guaranteed-hours request triggers an investigation

The FWA can also act on intelligence rather than complaints. A sector with known zero-hours misuse doesn't require a whistleblower to prompt scrutiny.

Penalty for non-compliance: Workers who are dismissed or disadvantaged for making a guaranteed-hours request can bring an Employment Tribunal claim for automatic unfair dismissal. There is no qualifying period and no financial cap on the award.

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The Sectors Most at Risk

Hospitality

1.3 million zero-hours workers. Restaurants, hotels, pubs and cafés are the most common zero-hours employers in the UK. Many kitchen porters, bar staff, and housekeeping workers have de facto regular patterns that look nothing like their written zero-hours contracts.

The risk: Any worker who consistently works Friday and Saturday nights, every week, for three months has a strong claim. And the FWA has named hospitality as target sector number one.

Care

Domiciliary care workers often travel the same route, visit the same clients, work the same hours — on zero-hours contracts. The care sector already has the UK's highest NMW underpayment rate. It will face disproportionate FWA scrutiny.

Retail

Part-time retail staff on zero-hours often work identical weekly patterns. The employer benefits from scheduling flexibility on paper while the worker's life runs on a predictable rhythm. That rhythm is the evidence.

Cleaning and FM

Zero-hours cleaning contracts are common — and cleaning contractors who use the same staff, same sites, same shifts week after week are precisely the scenario the legislation targets.

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Five Things to Do Before Monday

1. Audit your zero-hours workforce

Pull rotas for the last 12 weeks. For each zero-hours worker:

• What days/shifts did they work?
• How many hours per week, on average?
• Was there a consistent pattern?

If yes: that worker is eligible to make a guaranteed-hours request from Monday.

2. Create a process for receiving requests

Workers must be able to make guaranteed-hours requests in writing. Designate who receives them, what the acknowledgement process is, and what your response timeline is. This doesn't have to be complex — a one-page policy is sufficient.

3. Brief your managers

The most common enforcement trigger is a manager reducing hours or removing someone from the rota in response to a request. Brief every manager: zero-hours requests must be escalated to HR or senior management. No informal responses.

4. Update your zero-hours contracts

If your current zero-hours contracts don't reference the right to request guaranteed hours, update them. Workers should know the process.

5. Prepare your guaranteed-hours offer template

Have a template ready before someone requests. It should include: the employer name, worker name, agreed guaranteed hours per week, agreed days/shifts, start date, and signature fields.

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Not Sure Where You Stand? Take Our Free Compliance Score

If you're unsure whether your zero-hours arrangements are at risk, our free Compliance Score quiz covers employment rights including zero-hours obligations. 20 questions. Instant results. No sign-up required.

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What This Means for Your Business

This is not a ban on flexibility. Genuinely casual, ad-hoc arrangements remain legal.

What the law has done is draw a line between genuine casualness and disguised permanent employment. If a worker's "zero-hours" contract is functionally a permanent job with regular hours, the law now says they can formalise that.

The businesses that will face enforcement are those who continue using zero-hours contracts to deny guaranteed hours to workers who clearly have established patterns — particularly if they take retaliatory action when a request is made.

The businesses that act now — audit their workforce, create a clear request process, and brief their managers — will be ahead of the Monday launch.

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Key Dates to Track

Date	What Changes
7 April 2026	Zero-hours guaranteed-hours right active + Fair Work Agency launches
7 April 2026	FWA begins enforcing (hospitality, care, retail primary targets)
October 2026	Employment tribunal limitation window extended to 6 months (past claims become live)

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TL;DR

• From Monday 7 April, zero-hours workers with a regular 12-week pattern can formally request a guaranteed-hours contract
• You must offer it in writing; you cannot retaliate
• The Fair Work Agency launches the same day with walk-in enforcement powers
• Hospitality, care, retail and cleaning are the highest-risk sectors
• Audit your workforce, create a request process, brief your managers — this week

Get alerted when the FWA issues its first enforcement notices: ComplianceAlert monitors FWA enforcement in real time. When the first hospitality business is investigated, you'll know.

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Not sure if your current zero-hours arrangements are compliant? Ask Alice at compliancealert.co.uk/alice — she can walk you through the specific obligations for your sector.

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