Employers in certain sectors will have been concerned to read reports from the UK government that the costs of promised reforms to “zero hours contracts” under the Employment Rights Act 2025 may be anything up to £2.9 billion.
The changes, due to be implemented in early 2027, are designed to redress what are seen as “one-sided” working arrangements under which workers bear all the financial risk of fluctuations in demand for their labour. In December 2025, the number of people working under zero hours contracts as their only or main employment was 1.23 million, with young workers and all workers in the retail and hospitality sectors being disproportionately represented in those figures.
