UK Workers to Gain Right to Request More Predictable Hours

Workers in the United Kingdom with atypical working patterns, including staff employees, agency workers and those with casual arrangements, will gain the legal right to request more predictable hours on the job starting in the fall of 2024 under a recently enacted law. However, the new law doesn’t guarantee that workers’ requests will be granted.

The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, which was enacted in September, aims to redress a power imbalance between some employers and workers engaged in atypical work by introducing a right to seek a more predictable working pattern, according to a government release.

“Although zero-hours contracts can often suit workers who want to work flexibly and employers whose needs vary, it is unfair for anyone to have to put their lives on hold to make themselves available for shifts that may never actually come. This act helps to end the guessing game,” said U.K. Business and Trade Minister Kevin Hollinrake.

A Month to Respond

If a worker’s existing working pattern lacks certainty in when they work or if they’re on a fixed-term contract for less than 12 months, they’ll be able to make a formal application seeking a more predictable working pattern. Once a worker makes the request, the employer must notify them of its decision within a month.

“The act gives workers and agency workers, for the first time, the ability to request a more stable working pattern,” said Laura Morrison, an attorney with Dentons in Edinburgh, Scotland.

All employers must comply with the requirements and need to familiarize themselves with the new right and the process they must follow when dealing with requests, she said.

“Workers and agency workers will be able to bring a claim in the employment tribunal if there are procedural failings by the employer. If a claim is successful, the employment tribunal may order the employer to reconsider the application and/or make an award of compensation of such amount as the tribunal considers just and equitable, up to a specified maximum,” Morrison said.

“In the right to request flexible working regime, which operates in a similar manner, the maximum is eight weeks’ pay, so we expect this will be around the same amount,” she added.

Workers will also be able to bring a claim if they suffer a detriment in two situations, Morrison noted: Because they have made, or proposed to make, an application for a more predictable working pattern; or because they have brought proceedings, or alleged the existence of circumstances that would constitute grounds for bringing proceedings, for procedural failings by the employer in handling their application.

It will also be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee in these same two situations, she explained, adding that an employee will not need to have the usual two years’ service to bring a claim for unfair dismissal in these circumstances.

Employers Should Prepare

In the lead-up to implementation, “employers who engage staff on unpredictable working patterns should prepare for at least some of their workers to start making these requests,” said Hannah Grayson, an attorney with Lewis Silkin in Oxford, England.

One step would be implementing systems and processes that are likely to fit with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) code and any regulations, she said.

“Employers could be proactive by familiarizing themselves with the new legislation and the draft ACAS code, as the latter will give an indication of how employers should look to deal with requests,” Grayson said.

Workers will be able to make up to two predictability requests in a 12-month stretch, she noted.

“In reality, the process of dealing with these requests is not likely to differ significantly from the current flexible working regime, and employers should therefore have at least the beginnings of a framework under which predictable working applications can be considered,” she said.

Grayson said there are currently no specific rules in place that allow a worker to address the regularity or predictability of their working pattern with their employer.

What Impact Might the Law Have?

As things stand, a worker would have to raise these issues informally. Alternatively, employees—but not workers with more casual or irregular arrangements with employers than employees on employment contracts—might consider making a request under the flexible working regime. However, if employees are in an industry where unpredictable working patterns are common, the request may not likely succeed because of the detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, and they may be discouraged from raising it, Grayson said.

Grayson noted that an employer may refuse an application under the new law for specific reasons.

“The right is just to request a predictable working pattern. An employer who relies heavily on casual staff to operate will therefore still be able to turn down such an application. This inevitably leads to questions over how much of a real impact [the law] will have on those who are currently struggling with unpredictable working arrangements,” Grayson said.

An employer could refuse an application based on cost burden, the need to meet customer demand, structural changes or for certain other reasons, she said.

Those on “zero hours” contracts with no certain hours will likely have the right to make a request for predictable work arrangements, Grayson said.

Someone who works a shift pattern that varies in a predictable, repeating way wouldn’t meet the criteria, she added.

Dinah Wisenberg Brin is a reporter and writer in Philadelphia.