New rules could end last-minute shift cuts for UK staff

The government has opened a consultation on giving workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts a legal right to guaranteed hours that reflect the time they regularly work.

The consultation, launched this week as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025, would require employers to offer qualifying workers guaranteed hours reflecting the number of hours they work over a set reference period. S

taff would also be entitled to reasonable notice of shifts and compensation when shifts are cancelled, moved or shortened at short notice.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said workers should know how much they will earn from week to week rather than being left at the mercy of an employer that could cut shifts at the last minute.

The consultation closes on 25 August 2026, and the measures are expected to come into effect in 2027. The full detail is set out in the government’s consultation documents.

By the government’s own estimates, workers in some of the most deprived areas could save up to £600 a year from reduced hidden costs of insecure work.

The government has also said that workers who prefer the flexibility of a zero-hours arrangement would still be able to keep one under the proposals, according to reporting on the consultation.

What retailers say

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said the government cannot afford to get the reforms wrong, pointing to more than a million young people out of work or education.

“Crack down on bad employers by all means, but not by adding costs and rules that deter good employers from hiring in the first place,” Dickinson said.

She said retail was a lifeline into work for hundreds of thousands of young people each year, and warned that piling on cost and risk could mean many entry-level jobs would not be there in future.

The BRC set out specific concerns on how the rules would operate.

On the reference period, it said a 12-week period would mean people working for three months could be entitled to a guaranteed-hours contract, and that given the seasonal nature of retail work, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, anything below 26 weeks might leave retailers little choice but to reduce the number of flexible roles during busier periods.

On low hours, the BRC said an eight-hour threshold would be reasonable, while classifying contracts of up to 20 hours as low-hours would be disproportionate and could force businesses to repeatedly offer permanent contracts to hundreds of thousands of workers.

On shift changes, it said requiring up to four weeks’ notice would be out of step with the realities of retail.

The BRC was among four trade bodies, alongside the Food and Drink Federation, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and UK Hospitality, that wrote to the government in April warning the guaranteed-hours measure was a substantial threat to good jobs.

What unions say

The Trades Union Congress urged the government to deliver the new rights in full. The TUC said business groups arguing for the rights to be scaled back were defending a broken status quo that had failed the economy and working people.

A coalition of charities, unions and academics, including the TUC, the Work Foundation, the Young Women’s Trust, the Fawcett Society and Timewise, urged the government to stand firm on delivering guaranteed hours.

The consultation closes on 25 August 2026, with the new rights expected to take effect in 2027.

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