Casual and zero-hours workers: status, rights and the coming changes

Three statuses

Tribunals look through the label at the reality: who decides the hours, whether work can be refused without consequence, whether a substitute can genuinely be sent, who provides the tools, whether the person is integrated into the business. A "zero-hours worker" who has worked every week for two years, is expected to turn up when rostered, and would be dropped if they refused, is very likely an employee.

• Employee: works under a contract of employment, with mutual obligation (you offer work, they must do it), personal service, and control over how, when and where. Full rights.
• Worker: personally performs work under a contract, not as a client or customer of their own business, but without the full mutual obligation of employment. Core rights: minimum wage, paid holiday, rest breaks, payslips, pension assessment, whistleblowing and discrimination protection, part-time workers' rights.
• Self-employed: genuinely in business on their own account, can send a substitute, bears financial risk, controls the work. Few employment rights, though discrimination law may still apply where they contract personally.

What every casual is entitled to

As workers, from day one:

• The minimum wage for every hour worked, including compulsory briefings and travel between jobs.
• Paid holiday: 5.6 weeks pro rata, accrued at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period for irregular hours workers, which is what most casuals are. Rolled-up holiday pay (a separately itemised 12.07% on each payslip) is permitted for them.
• Rest breaks and the 48-hour average limit.
• An itemised payslip showing hours.
• A written statement of particulars on day one, honest about the absence of guaranteed hours.
• Pension auto-enrolment assessment every pay period, with postponement available for up to three months.
• Protection from discrimination, from detriment for whistleblowing, and from less favourable treatment than comparable full-time workers.

What needs employee status

Unfair dismissal protection (after the qualifying period), statutory redundancy pay, statutory notice, the family leave rights (maternity, paternity, parental, carer's leave), time off for dependants and flexible working requests belong to employees. Statutory Sick Pay applies to "employed earners", which includes many workers and agency staff paid through PAYE. If a casual is in reality an employee, all of these apply, and dismissing them by simply not offering shifts is a dismissal.

Exclusivity clauses

A clause in a zero-hours contract preventing the worker from working for anyone else is unenforceable, and since 2022 the same applies to contracts where the guaranteed weekly income is below the lower earnings limit. Dismissing or penalising a worker for working elsewhere in breach of such a clause is automatically unfair from day one.

Continuity of service

Continuous employment builds towards notice, redundancy pay and unfair dismissal rights. A week without work does not necessarily break it: gaps count as continuous where there is a "temporary cessation of work" or an arrangement or custom that the person remains employed. A casual who works most weeks and is off for the odd one is usually continuous throughout. Assume continuity unless the gaps are long and genuinely open-ended.

Agency workers

The agency employs them and is responsible for pay, holiday and the right to work check. After 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer, the Agency Workers Regulations give them equal treatment on basic terms (pay, holiday, hours, rest) with your comparable direct employees; from day one they get access to facilities and information about vacancies. The hirer shares liability for the equal treatment rights, so tell the agency your rates and terms.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 changes

The Act introduces, for workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts, a right to be offered a guaranteed-hours contract reflecting the hours they actually worked over a reference period (expected to be twelve weeks), a right to reasonable notice of shifts and of changes or cancellations, and a right to compensation for shifts cancelled or curtailed at short notice. The detail and the dates are in regulations; at the time of writing employers should be planning for them rather than relying on them. If your casuals work regular hours, the practical answer is to offer them a contract that reflects it now.

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