Find out how proposed new rights for workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts could affect your organisation and how you can respond to the government consultation.
The Government is consulting on how new rights for workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts will work in practice.
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade’s (DBIST) open consultation closes at 23:59 on Tuesday 25 August 2026.
If your organisation employs people on zero-hours contracts, or represents people who do, this is an opportunity for you and the people and communities you support to have your perspectives heard and help shape how the new rules will work in practice.
You can respond by:
The consultation will inform the development of regulation for three measures included in the Employment Rights Act 2025. This hasn't taken effect yet, but will give employees the right to;
We know that there will be a variety of (sometimes conflicting) views on the best way to implement these new rights.
There are important questions about how these rights should work in practice, particularly for organisations that need to balance financial and operational pressures with providing secure and predictable work.
Our members will have different perspectives on how that balance should look. Some organisations will be responding as employers, while others will be responding from a worker or employment rights perspective.
Making sure both perspectives are heard matters.
We encourage any member organisation that could be affected by these changes to consider responding to the consultation and sharing its experience of what would work, and what unintended consequences it could create.
We're making sure the experience and expertise of the voluntary sector is heard by the people developing policy and regulation. We believe we can provide the most value by linking expertise with the relevant civil servants at the right time.
Our strength is in connecting people, bringing different perspectives together and making sure decision-makers understand what proposed changes mean for civil society in practice.
We've already connected experts with the relevant team at DBIST, enabling them to shape the team’s understanding of the different angles to consider when designing the regulation.
We'll continue to maintain our relationships with the DBIST team and will follow up with them after the consultation closes to ensure they will clear about the different ways this could impact civil society.
This is an important part of how we see our role: as a connector, convener and advocate for our members and the wider voluntary sector.
As we continue to develop our policy, public affairs and research priorities under our new strategy, we'll share more about how we are putting this approach into practice and how members can engage with us on issues that matter to them.
If you have experience or expertise that you think would be useful to our work, email jo.reilly@ncvo.org.uk.
