Plan to Make Work Pay

TULO Report June 2026

Delivering guaranteed hours contract rights “in full”

As part of its Plan to Make Work Pay and deliver on measures in the Employment Rights Act, the government committed to offering all workers a right to a contract which reflects their regular hours and giving every worker notice of their shifts and compensation for cancelled shifts.

The government is consulting on the maximum number of hours a worker can have before losing entitlement to a contract that reflects their regular hours, as well as shift notice and compensation for cancelled work.

The TUC has called on the government to get on with delivering guaranteed hours contracts rights in full after the consultation into the new measures was launched. The TUC says those rules must protect all workers from exploitation.

• TUC calls for full guaranteed hours rights as government consults on options
• Union body says full implementation of new rights vital to tackling the scourge of insecure work
• Business groups arguing for rights to be scaled back are “defending a broken status quo”, which has failed our economy and working people

The TUC warns that listening to some of the “bad faith scaremongering” on guaranteed hours could leave many workers still facing insecurity – simply raising the floor from zero hours and creating a new race to the bottom, where employers offer contracts which reflect an inadequate new legal minimum.

If the policy is not implemented in full, workers will face distorted shift allocations – employers would be incentivised to deny additional hours to the workers with the lowest hours in case they triggered their right to secure hours.

The union body adds that warnings from employers’ organisations suggesting that rogue businesses will resort to bogus self-employment, rather than give guaranteed hours, “speaks volumes” about their priorities and reinforces the need to take on the broken status quo.

Trades Unions Membership

The TUC have recently reported that union membership numbers have risen by 192,000 to 6.6 million in 2025.

It is great to see more people across the country joining trade unions at the present time, when it is important to be a trade union member.  Union membership supports individuals and groups fighting for fair pay and conditions, demanding better health and safety, or in tackling the scourge of insecure work.  The new Employment Rights Act will enable millions to benefit from stronger rights at work – including day one sick pay and stronger protections from unfair dismissal.  When membership of unions grows with increasing recognition in the workplace, working people do well.

Trevor Hills