Guaranteed hours and shift notice under the Employment Rights Act 2025
Most commentary on the Employment Rights Act 2025 focuses on unfair dismissal. For anyone who publishes a rota, the more consequential part is quieter: a set of rights that attach obligations to the individual shift — how much notice it carries, and what happens when you take it away.
Summarise with AI
Key takeaways
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 became law on 18 December 2025 and is being brought in across 2026 and 2027
- Already in force: statutory sick pay from day one with no earnings threshold, since 6 April 2026
- Expected in 2027: a right to guaranteed hours for zero-hours and low-hours workers, reasonable notice of shifts, and payment where a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short
- The unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to 6 months from 1 January 2027, with fire-and-rehire protections the same month
- Most of the shift-related detail is subject to consultation, so the timing and thresholds can still move
Where things stand
| Change | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory sick pay: no waiting days, no earnings threshold | 6 April 2026 | In force |
| Unfair dismissal qualifying period cut to 6 months | 1 January 2027 | Date set |
| Fire-and-rehire protections | January 2027 | Date set |
| Right to guaranteed hours | 2027 | Subject to consultation |
| Reasonable notice of shifts | 2027 | Subject to consultation |
| Payment for cancelled or curtailed shifts | 2027 | Subject to consultation |
The first row is the one to check today. Day-one statutory sick pay has been in force since April 2026 and applies to every employee regardless of earnings — our SSP guide covers what that changed.
Guaranteed hours
Workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts are to gain a right to be offered guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they actually work, if they want them. Zero-hours contracts are not banned, and a worker who values the flexibility can decline the offer.
The practical question this raises is one most employers cannot currently answer: how many hours do our zero-hours staff actually work over a reference period? If the answer lives in twelve weeks of rotas and a payroll export, working it out per person is a project. If hours are already recorded against each worker, it is a report.
Notice of shifts, and payment when they change
Today there is no general statutory minimum notice for a shift — it is whatever the contract says. The Act introduces a right to reasonable notice of a shift and of changes to it, plus a right to a payment where a shift is cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice.
What this does to the rota
Once a payment can attach to a cancelled shift, the interesting question stops being "who was scheduled?" and becomes "when was that communicated, and when did it change?"
A spreadsheet answers the first question and has nothing to say about the second. Overwriting a cell leaves no trace of what was there before, or when it changed — and in a dispute about short-notice cancellation, that history is the evidence.
Three things worth measuring now
The detail is still moving, so building policy around specific thresholds would be premature. Measuring your own baseline is not — and all three of these are useful management information regardless of what the consultation concludes:
- Actual hours worked by zero-hours staff over a rolling reference period, per person
- How far ahead you publish the rota, measured rather than assumed
- How often a published shift changes, and how close to the shift the change happens
The third is usually the surprise. Employers who track it for the first time tend to find that late changes are concentrated on a handful of people, which is both a compliance exposure and a retention problem worth knowing about.
Where the rota becomes the record
Rota software timestamps when a shift was published and when it changed, which is the audit trail these rights will turn on. Clocked hours give you the actual-hours figure that a guaranteed-hours calculation needs. Neither is a legal opinion, but both answer questions a spreadsheet cannot. The dismissal side of the Act is covered in notice periods and dismissal and probation and performance reviews, and the shift-notice duties in practice in changing a rota.
Related guides
- Rota laws in the UK — the working time rules that apply today
- Statutory sick pay — the part of the Act already in force
- Shift patterns explained — designing patterns that need fewer late changes
- Free blank rota template — for planning, while you work out the record-keeping
Start measuring before the rules land
Actual hours per worker, publication dates and a change history — the three things the 2027 rights will ask you for.
This guide summarises the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the published implementation timeline as at August 2026, and is not legal advice. Most of the shift-related measures are subject to consultation, so timings and detail may change. Check GOV.UK and Acas for the current position before making decisions. It does not constitute legal, HR, or professional advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice specific to your business, workforce, or circumstances.
Employment Rights Act questions
- The legislation implementing the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay. It became law on 18 December 2025 and is being commenced in stages across 2026 and 2027. For employers who run rotas, the significant parts are the zero-hours reforms and the shift notice and cancellation rights.
- A right for workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts to be offered guaranteed working hours reflecting the hours they actually work, if they want them. The intention is that someone regularly working 30 hours a week on a zero-hours contract can ask for that to be contractual. Expected in 2027, with the detail subject to consultation.
- A requirement to give workers reasonable notice of a shift, and of any change to a shift. Today there is no general statutory minimum — see our rota laws guide for the current position. Expected in 2027; what counts as "reasonable" is one of the points being consulted on.
- That is the intention. Workers are to have a right to a payment where a shift is cancelled, moved to another date, or cut short at short notice. The amount and the notice threshold are subject to consultation. Expected in 2027.