Zero hours contracts: guidance for employers
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Guidance on zero hours contracts - includes information on how to use them, employment rights and alternatives.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 4
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-17
- Category
- Safety & operations
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
Guidance on zero hours contracts - includes information on how to use them, employment rights and alternatives. Consult the original guidance for current legal and operational details.
Contents
- Make Work Pay: ending one-sided flexibility - reforms of zero hours and similar contracts.
- Employment rights
- When an employer could use a zero hours contract
- New businesses
- Seasonal work
- Unexpected sickness
- Special events
- When an employer should not use zero hours contracts
- Alternatives to zero hours contracts
- Contract information
- Offering work: best practice
- Advertising a zero hours role
- Exclusivity clauses
- Self-employment
Source and licence
Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
AttributionDepartment for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, ‘Zero hours contracts: guidance for employers’ (updated 28 August 2026), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesNeutral text-only adaptation from the official GOV.UK Content API body: headings, paragraphs, ordered and unordered list items and clickable source-link destinations in an appendix preserved. Images, logos, page design, accessible-format request widgets and linked attachments excluded; normalised whitespace, invisible format marks and typography.
Version history
- v1.017/09/2026