Guaranteed hours on zero-hours contract

Short answer

At the moment, no. Under the law currently in force in England and Wales, a genuine zero-hours contract does not give you an automatic legal right to guaranteed hours simply because you have worked a regular pattern for a long time. Your entitlement is governed by the terms of your contract and your employment status, not by habit alone.

However, this is an area of major change. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has now received Royal Assent and introduces a new statutory right to guaranteed hours for zero-hours and low-hours workers. That right is not yet in force. It depends on detailed regulations that still have to be made, and the Government has indicated that the zero-hours measures are among the later reforms to be brought into effect, expected around 2027 rather than immediately. Until the relevant provisions and regulations are commenced, the new right cannot be enforced.

The current legal position

On a true zero-hours contract, the employer is not obliged to offer you any minimum number of hours, and typically you are not obliged to accept work offered. Working the same shifts week after week does not, by itself, convert the arrangement into a guaranteed-hours contract.

That said, your actual legal status matters more than the label on the document. If, in practice, there is a mutual obligation for the employer to provide work and for you to do it, and the arrangement has the features of a continuing employment relationship, a tribunal may find that your real status is more secure than a “zero-hours” description suggests. A long-standing, regular and predictable pattern can be evidence that an overarching or implied contract exists that requires the employer to provide a certain level of work. This is fact-sensitive and turns on how the relationship operated in reality, not just the paperwork.

Two related points under existing law are worth knowing. First, exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts, which try to stop you working for anyone else, are unenforceable. Second, continuity of employment can build up even across gaps, which affects rights such as protection from unfair dismissal and redundancy pay once you have the necessary qualifying service.

The new right to guaranteed hours under the Employment Rights Act 2025

The Act creates a right for qualifying zero-hours and low-hours workers to be offered guaranteed hours that reflect the hours they actually worked during a reference period. The key features, based on the Act and the Government’s own factsheet, are:

The employer must make a guaranteed hours offer at the end of each reference period to workers who qualify. The offer should reflect the pattern of hours the worker regularly worked during that period, so that a regular pattern becomes a contractual baseline.

Qualification will depend on conditions to be set out in regulations. These include working above a certain hours threshold, working in excess of any contractual hours during the reference period, meeting “regularity” requirements, and not being an “excluded worker” if any exclusions are created. The precise length of the reference period, the hours threshold and the regularity test are all to be fixed by regulations that have not yet been finalised.

Importantly, the design is that the offer of guaranteed hours goes to the worker, who can accept or decline it. This preserves flexibility for those who genuinely want it, such as students or people with caring responsibilities, while giving security to those who want it.

Enforcement will be through the employment tribunal. If you qualify but the employer fails to make a guaranteed-hours offer, you will be able to bring a claim.

Why this does not help you yet

The crucial practical point is timing. A right written into an Act of Parliament only becomes usable once the relevant sections are commenced and the supporting regulations are in place. The guaranteed-hours provisions rely heavily on regulations to define who qualifies and how the reference period works, and the Government has signalled that these zero-hours reforms will be introduced in a later phase of implementation rather than at once. Until that happens, you cannot yet bring a tribunal claim demanding guaranteed hours on the strength of the new law.

What would change the answer

Several missing facts could materially affect your position:

1. Your true employment status. If your working pattern shows genuine mutuality of obligation, you may already be an employee or worker with a more secure contract than the zero-hours label implies, regardless of the new Act.

2. The exact wording of your contract. Some so-called zero-hours contracts in fact contain a minimum-hours guarantee, an implied variation, or terms that have changed through custom and practice over time.

3. Length and consistency of the pattern. A very long, unbroken and predictable pattern strengthens any argument that the reality of the relationship differs from the paperwork.

4. Whether the new regulations, once made, would cover your role and hours, and whether you would fall within any excluded category.

Practical next steps

1. Gather evidence now. Keep rotas, payslips, timesheets, messages arranging shifts and anything showing how regular and predictable your hours have been. This is useful both for any status argument today and to demonstrate qualification once the new right is in force.

2. Read your contract carefully to see whether it truly imposes no minimum hours, whether it contains an unenforceable exclusivity clause, and whether custom and practice has altered the arrangement.

3. Consider an informal request first. Many employers will agree to move a reliable long-serving worker onto a fixed-hours or minimum-hours contract if simply asked, which avoids the cost, delay and stress of a dispute. Put the request in writing and set out your regular pattern.

4. If that fails and you believe your true status already gives you rights, or you want to understand how the new law will apply to you, take tailored advice. ACAS provides free guidance on zero-hours contracts and employment status, and Citizens Advice can help you assess whether your working pattern points to a more secure status.

5. Watch for the commencement of the Employment Rights Act 2025 provisions and the accompanying regulations, because that is what will convert a regular pattern into an enforceable right to guaranteed hours.

Summary

Working the same pattern on a zero-hours contract does not currently give you an automatic right to guaranteed hours, though it may be evidence that your real employment status is more secure than the contract suggests. A new statutory right to guaranteed hours has been enacted in the Employment Rights Act 2025, but it is not yet in force and depends on regulations expected to arrive in a later phase of implementation. In the meantime, focus on evidencing your pattern, checking your true status and contract terms, and, if appropriate, asking the employer to formalise your hours.