Guaranteed hours, shift notice and cancellation pay: what sections 1-3 of the Act will require
Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 create rights to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts, and payment for shifts cancelled at short notice. None of these duties is in force yet. This page sets out what each section does, and says plainly when each is expected to commence and what is still to be decided.
Last reviewed 21 September 2026. Sources:the Employment Rights Act 2025,GOV.UK implementation timeline, andAcas guidance.
GOV.UK’s implementation timeline lists guaranteed hours, reasonable notice and short-notice payments together under measures expected "during 2027, dates to be confirmed" — not a fixed date, and not imminent. Acas describes implementation as "in most cases... subject to government consultations." The consultation on these duties ran from 2 June to 25 August 2026. All future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and may change.
What each section does
- Section 1Right to guaranteed hours
Inserts a new Chapter 2A into Part 2A of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It creates a right for qualifying workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts to be offered guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they actually work, if they want them. Who qualifies, and over what reference period, is left to regulations that have not yet been made.
Source - Section 2Reasonable notice of shifts
Inserts a new Chapter 3. An employer must give a worker reasonable notice of a shift it requests or requires them to work, and reasonable notice of any change to, or cancellation of, that shift. A worker can bring an employment tribunal claim if reasonable notice is not given. What counts as "reasonable" is left to regulations that have not yet been made.
Source - Section 3Payment for cancelled, moved or curtailed shifts
Inserts a new Chapter 4. An employer must make a payment to a worker each time it cancels, moves or curtails a qualifying shift at short notice. The amount of the payment, and what counts as "short notice", are left to regulations that have not yet been made. A worker can bring a tribunal claim if the payment is not made.
Source
Expected 2027, not yet settled
The same three rights, as the ERA 2025 cornerstone page timelines them.
- ExpectedExpected 2027
Right to guaranteed hours
Workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts are expected to gain a right to be offered guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they actually work, if they want them. Qualifying thresholds and the reference period are to be set out in regulations and are still subject to consultation — no threshold or reference-period length is stated on this page because none has been fixed.
Source - ExpectedExpected 2027
Right to reasonable notice of shifts and changes to shifts
A right to reasonable notice of a shift, and of any change to a shift. What counts as reasonable is expected to be set out in regulations.
Source - ExpectedExpected 2027
Payment for shifts cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice
Compensation where a shift is cancelled, shortened, or moved to another time at short notice. The amount and the definition of short notice are expected to be set in regulations.
Source
Sections 1 to 3 name the rights but leave the detail — who qualifies, the reference period, what counts as reasonable notice, the amount of the cancellation payment and what counts as short notice — to regulations that have not yet been made. No threshold, period or amount is stated on this page because none has been fixed.
What you can do before the rules are set
You cannot comply with a threshold, reference period or payment amount that has not been fixed. What you can do is make sure the history the eventual rules will be applied to already exists: when a shift was offered, when a worker was told, when it was changed or cancelled, and how much notice that actually gave.
Toi 'n' Moi® Rota Management records the publication time of every shift, every change and every cancellation as they happen. It does not calculate a guaranteed-hours offer or a cancellation payment that regulations have not yet defined — it keeps the dated record that calculation would need once the regulations exist.
Related
Sections 1-3 are the shift-scheduling duties inside a wider Act. Some of the Act, including holiday record-keeping and Statutory Sick Pay from day one, is already in force.See the full Employment Rights Act 2025 timeline. For the settled rest-period rules that already apply today, seeWorking Time Regulations: rest periods and rota evidence.