Answers · UK 2025/26

What employment rights do zero-hours contract workers have in the UK?

Zero-hours workers are entitled to the National Minimum/Living Wage for all hours worked, statutory paid holiday (accrued proportionally to hours worked), rest breaks, and protection from being penalised for refusing offered work or for working for another employer, but they are not guaranteed any minimum hours and can have work offered on a purely as-needed basis.

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Full answer

Zero-hours contracts mean the employer is not obliged to offer any minimum number of hours, and the worker is not obliged to accept work offered, but this flexibility does not remove several important baseline legal protections. **Pay rights** Zero-hours workers must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (depending on age) for every hour actually worked, and time spent 'on call' or waiting at the workplace for work to be assigned may also count as working time for minimum wage purposes, depending on the specific arrangement. **Holiday entitlement** Zero-hours workers accrue statutory paid holiday in the same way as other workers, proportional to the hours they actually work -- commonly calculated at 12.07% of hours worked (reflecting the standard 5.6 weeks' statutory entitlement spread across a working year), and can either take accrued holiday as paid leave or, in some structures, receive rolled-up holiday pay added to each payslip, provided it is itemised separately and calculated correctly. **Exclusivity clause ban** Employers are generally banned from including exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts that would prevent a worker from also working for another employer, and cannot penalise or dismiss a worker for taking on other work elsewhere. **Right to refuse offered work** Because there is no guaranteed minimum hours, zero-hours workers can generally refuse any specific shift or work offered without this itself constituting a breach of contract, since no obligation to accept work exists in a genuine zero-hours arrangement. **Sick pay and other statutory entitlements** Zero-hours workers may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay if their average earnings meet the qualifying Lower Earnings Limit test, calculated with reference to their actual variable earnings pattern, and are entitled to the same protection from discrimination and (for those who qualify as employees rather than just workers) other employment rights as comparable staff. **Worked example** A zero-hours retail worker is offered a shift one week and declines it due to a prior commitment. The employer cannot lawfully penalise them for this refusal, cannot prevent them from taking a second job elsewhere, and must still pay at least minimum wage plus accrued holiday pay for any hours they do actually work. **Practical tip** Keep your own record of hours worked and holiday taken or accrued, since zero-hours patterns can make it harder to track entitlement accurately, and check your specific contract for how holiday pay is calculated and paid (rolled-up versus taken as separate paid leave), as approaches vary between employers.