Zero-Hour Contract

A zero-hour contract (ZHC) is an employment agreement that does not guarantee a minimum number of working hours — the employer offers work as needed and the worker may or may not be obligated to accept. Most common in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand (where the term is most frequently used), this arrangement provides employers maximum scheduling flexibility for variable demand without the fixed labor cost commitment of regular employment. The primary worker concern is income unpredictability: workers on zero-hour contracts cannot reliably budget or plan financially without minimum guaranteed hours, and may receive inadequate notice of shift cancellation to make alternative arrangements. The most contentious policy debate is exclusivity clauses in ZHCs — provisions requiring workers to be available to the employer without the right to work elsewhere — which have been banned in the UK as an unfair restriction on workers with no guaranteed earnings.