Zero Hours Contract Rules UK: What ERA 2025 Changes for Cleaning, Landscaping and Construction Employers

This article is for guidance only. It is not legal advice.

Zero hours contracts are widely used in cleaning, landscaping, roofing and construction. They are legal. Under ERA 2025, workers who establish a regular pattern of hours can request a guaranteed hours contract. If your staffing model relies on zero hours arrangements, you need to understand the current rules and what is changing. Getting it wrong means backdated holiday pay claims, minimum wage exposure and tribunal risk.

What a zero hours contract is

A zero hours contract offers no guaranteed minimum hours. The employer offers work when available. The worker can accept or decline. Neither side is obligated to offer or accept hours.

Zero hours arrangements are well suited to genuine demand variation: seasonal landscaping, ad hoc cleaning cover or short-term construction labour. They become problematic when used for workers who are, in practice, working predictable regular hours week after week.

Workers on zero hours contracts are generally classed as "workers" rather than "employees." Workers have fewer rights than employees but more rights than the genuinely self-employed.

What rights zero hours workers have now

Zero hours workers are currently entitled to:

• →National minimum wage for every hour worked
• →Holiday pay (12.07 per cent of hours worked, accrued each pay period)
• →SSP from April 2026 (the lower earnings limit has been removed)
• →Protection from unlawful deduction from wages
• →Rest breaks and working time protections
• →Protection from discrimination

What ERA 2025 changes

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a right for zero hours workers to request a guaranteed hours contract once they have worked a regular pattern over a qualifying reference period.

How the right works. After working a regular and recurring pattern of hours for a reference period (the length of which will be set in regulations), the worker can request a contract that guarantees those hours. This must be a genuine reflection of the hours they have been working.

How you respond. You must consider the request properly and respond within a set timeframe. You can refuse on specific business grounds, for example genuine variation in demand that makes guaranteed hours unworkable. You must give reasons for any refusal.

Anti-avoidance. The Act is expected to include measures to prevent employers from deliberately reducing hours in the weeks before the reference period ends to prevent workers from qualifying.

Timeline. The guaranteed hours right had not come into force at the time of writing. Implementation is expected in phases from 2026. Check government and ACAS guidance for the current status before making any staffing changes in response to this right.

What this means for different trades businesses

Cleaning companies. If you have cleaning operatives working the same shifts every week, they are likely to qualify for guaranteed hours once the right is in force. Assess now whether those workers genuinely need zero hours flexibility or whether their pattern is predictable enough to warrant a part-time contract.

Landscaping businesses. Seasonal demand creates genuine variation. Workers employed only during the growing season who are not retained over winter may not establish a regular enough year-round pattern to trigger the right. Workers who move between your landscaping and grounds maintenance contracts throughout the year may be a different matter.

Construction and roofing employers. Project-based work creates genuine variation in labour demand. Workers brought in for a specific project and released after it ends may not qualify. Workers who move from your project to project continuously for months on end may establish a regular pattern.

What to audit now

• →Identify which of your zero hours workers have worked a consistent pattern of hours for an extended period. These are the workers most likely to request guaranteed hours once the right is in force.
• →Check whether any of your contracts contain exclusivity clauses. Remove them if so.
• →Verify that your holiday pay calculation uses the 12.07 per cent accrual method correctly for each pay period.
• →Ensure every zero hours worker received a written statement of their terms on or before their first day of work.

The employment status question

A zero hours contract does not automatically make someone a worker rather than an employee. Status is determined by the working relationship, not the label on the contract. If a zero hours cleaner works exclusively for you, cannot send a substitute and must accept the hours you offer, a tribunal may find them to be an employee with full employment rights.