Zero hours contract (employee)

Author: Zeba Sayed and Nicky Stibbs

When to use this model contract

Use this contract when you are engaging an employee on a zero hours contract on a permanent basis. In practice, the term "zero hours contract" is often used interchangeably with "casual contract". For the purposes of this document, the term zero hours contract is used to refer to the situation where the employer has no obligation to offer an individual work, but when it does, the individual is required to accept the offer. In this contract, the parties intend that the individual is an employee and there is a continuing relationship during periods when the employee is not actively working for the employer. We provide a separate Casual contract (worker), under which the employer has no obligation to offer an individual work, but when it does, the individual is not required to accept the offer.