Shift work and the Employment Rights Act

What UK employers with shift patterns and shift workers need to know

New laws impacting shift work

The UK’s Employment Rights Act is set to introduce some of the most significant employment law changes in over a decade…so organisations that rely on shift workers will need to consider what it means for them.

For shift workers, the Act’s goal is to increase predictability and provide stronger protections.

For employers of shift workers, it’s not simply ‘tweaks to existing rules’. The legislation reinforces the need to look holistically at how you approach flexibility, predictability and operational resilience.

Importantly, it makes it imperative to review the shift patterns, shift work practices and shift worker support that underpins your organisation’s success.

In many operating environments shift work resourcing models depend on informal flexibility, which can include short-notice changes, ad-hoc overtime, variable hours, reliance on employee goodwill and manager discretion.

The Employment Rights Act increases the likelihood that some practices will become more costly, risky and harder to justify without clear process and evidence.

Organisations that fail to adapt could find themselves both exposed to regulatory risk and struggling to attract talent.

Non-compliance may lead to fines and damage employer brand.

Much like the ‘naming and shaming’ around breaches of the National Minimum Wage, the reputational consequences of regulatory breaches with customers and other stakeholders could be far reaching.

It means these reforms will significantly affect how some employers approach shift scheduling, variable hours and workforce flexibility.

This article provides a summary of the key elements of the legislation that impacts how shift work is planned and managed.

Quick guide and webinar

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Our bite-sized guide and one-hour webinar provide the outline of a framework you can apply in your own organisation.

Why the Employment Rights Act matters in shift work

Alongside operational pressures and volatility, organisations that rely on shift workers are already facing increased scrutiny of shift work practices…regardless of the Employment Rights Act.

This is manifesting in multiple ways:

– Trade Unions focusing on fairness and change control.

– Greater employee willingness to challenge unpredictability.

– Growing reputational sensitivity in labour markets where recruitment and retention is already challenging.

Stakeholders are also increasingly concerned with duty-of-care, as evidence mounts around the potential impact of shift work on short term fatigue risk and long-term health conditions.

Organisations need to effectively balance this increased scrutiny with the twin priorities of:

– Resourcing operations in a way that supports productivity, efficiency, compliance and resilience.

– Maintaining working conditions that meet the wellbeing, work-life balance and career aspirations of current and future shift workers.

In most environments, achieving this balance is based on how demand and capacity is planned, shift patterns are designed, day-to-day rostering is managed and whether your policies, processes, systems and shift worker support mechanisms align.

When these aspects of shift work are not optimised, the outcome is often predictable:

– Impacted performance.

– Increased labour costs (overtime and agency).

– Higher sickness absence.

– Staff turnover.

– Lower engagement.

– Employee relations issues or increased risk of industrial action.

The Employment Rights Act adds a further governance consideration with its focus on strengthening protections for shift workers.

For employers, this means potentially adapting shift work planning and management practices to comply with the new legislation…without adversely impacting operational efficiency, productivity and organisational performance.

It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to compromise flexibility to achieve compliance.

Instead, it can be viewed as an opportunity to optimise operating models and increase resilience through enhanced planning, stronger operating rules and data analysis.

Ensuring shift work practices align to The Employment Rights Act also presents an opportunity to strengthen engagement with shift workers and Trade Unions.

A data-led, collaborative approach enables you to co-design ways of working that go beyond compliance to embed solutions that deliver measurable benefits for your organisation and shift workers.

Reforms those with shift workers need to prepare for

There are a significant number of future reforms in the Employment Rights Act that organisations with shift workers need to prepare for which are due to come into effect in 2027.

From those impacting predictable shift patterns to ones affecting industrial action, we give you a breakdown and what this means for shift work below.

1. Statutory right to predictable working patterns

A central element of the Employment Rights Act is the introduction of a legal right for your employees to request a predictable working pattern.

This applies directly to shift workers seeking stability in:

– Shift times

– Weekly hours

– Overall working arrangements

Requests can still be refused, but only on defined business grounds and through a transparent, structured process.

Impact on employers with shift workers:

This element of the Employment Rights Act means that some organisations can expect an increase in requests for more regular shift patterns, fixed start and finish times, or reduced variation in weekly hours (particularly from shift workers balancing caring responsibilities, health considerations or long commutes).

For employers, the challenge is that assessing and responding to requests for predictability will require consistent, justifiable decision making.

Your rationale will need to be transparent, evidence-based and repeatable across managers and sites.

This is likely to make effective capacity planning and shift pattern design even more important.

Organisations that have a robust labour demand and capacity model, clear evidence of how shift patterns align to coverage requirements and disciplined shift pattern design and management processes (including agreed operating and design rules) will find it easier to demonstrate that decisions are fair and grounded in operational reality.

Shift Patterns

Finding shift patterns that balance the needs of your organisation and shift workers can be challenging.

optashift’s Shift Pattern Design service combines data science, expert insight and collaboration to create shift patterns that are fully optimised for your performance and people.

2. Tackling ‘one-sided flexibility’ in shift scheduling

Another key focus of the reforms is avoiding what the government calls ‘one-sided flexibility’.

This is when it is deemed that employers benefit from flexibility while shift workers bear the uncertainty.

Key legislative changes within the Employment Rights Act include:

– Compensation for short notice shift cancellations.

– Minimum notice periods for rota changes.

– Protection for workers who decline ‘short notice’ shifts.

What this means for employers with shift workers:

‘Last minute’ changes to shift patterns will become more expensive, potentially adding to existing additional labour costs created by reliance on overtime and agency labour.

This will require you to ensure:

– Labour demand and supply forecasts are as accurate as possible.

– Shift patterns closely align to demand trends.

– Cover models incorporate flex mechanisms that can help overcome short-range variations.

– Systems such as banked hours and on-call are robust and fair.

The Employment Rights Act sets a clear direction of travel.

In future it’s likely that securing cover in ways that negatively impacts employees (through uncertainty, fatigue, disrupted home life etc.) will become financially and reputationally untenable.

This increases the need for your shift work systems to be more cognisant of variability, proving visibility and effective mechanisms to ensure exceptions are governed by principles of balance and fairness.

Shift Work Assessment

Optimising shift patterns and shift work delivers huge benefits…but complexity and competing priorities sees many organisations leave things as they are.

Our Shift Work Assessment is a streamlined process which quickly analyses all relevant operational and HR factors to give you a tailored plan for immediate improvement.

3. Stronger rights for zero hours and casual shift workers

It’s currently estimated that there are around 1.23 million workers on zero hours contracts in the UK.

The Employment Rights Act introduces enhanced protections for zero hours and casual workers…many of whom operate in shift-based roles.

Key reforms include:

– A right to request a contract that reflects actual working patterns.

– Restrictions on exclusivity clauses.

– Improved access to statutory benefits such as sick pay and holiday pay.

Impact on employers with shift workers:

For organisations that rely on zero hours contracts to provide flexibility and on-demand labour, this piece of legislation has the potential to require them to re-think their labour resourcing model.

We could see many look at creating additional full time and/or part time roles with shift patterns that meet a proportion of predictable demand.

There will likely be significant opportunities to design shift patterns that vary labour supply based on demand data.

This could significantly reduce or negate the need for agency workers and zero hours contracts, whilst offering greater choice to employees.

When combined with effective and fair flex mechanisms, this could provide the basis of a dynamic, efficient and sustainable labour model.

A key component are base shift patterns that support flexibility, transparency and avoid significant work-life balance disruption…even when demand increases or varies.

This is where better analytics, clearer scheduling constraints and scenario modelling become essential.

Organisations will need to identify the cost and coverage implications of different contract and shift pattern options to identify the best route forward.

Key reforms already impacting shift work

Many of the Employment Rights Act reforms that have already come into effect have focussed on industrial relations changes.

Ultimately these have shaped the context in which the later reforms affecting shift pattern predictability will land.

They reinforce that flexibility is a key consideration in shift work models.

Minimum service levels during strike action

Rules around ‘minimum service levels’ for strikes were removed on 18 December 2025.

These rules were about keeping services running by compelling a minimum number of employees to still work when there was strike action (specifically in health, education, fire, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning services).

Impact on organisations with shift workers:

For employers operating in critical services, the Employment Rights Act’s removal of minimum service level rules increases the importance of contingency demand and capacity planning and scenario modelling to ensure resourcing models can be adapted quickly should strike action occur.

Where shift patterns are providing ‘tight’ coverage models with limited capacity flexibility, the operational consequences of disruption can escalate quickly.

This makes it valuable to ensure you have a shift work data analytics model that enables clear assessment of labour supply and demand and the ability to forecast the impact of potential action on capacity. You can then use this model to inform potential short-term operational and workforce solutions.

Increased protection for industrial action

Measures from The Employment Rights Act which came into effect on 18 February 2026 include:

– The notice period for taking industrial action has dropped from 14 days to 10.

– It removes the 40 per cent support requirement for industrial ballots in six public services – fire, health, education, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning sectors.

– A strike ballot will stay valid for 12 months instead of six.

– The process for issuing industrial action and ballot notices is being simplified, cutting down on admin.

– Current limits on picketing have been removed.

– Public sector employers in England and Scotland will no longer be required to publish facility time data.

– The removal of the current 12-week limit (time in employment) for unfair dismissal for taking part in industrial action (making it a day one right instead).

Impact on organisations with shift workers:

As strike action can often be linked to shift work conditions, it is important you consider best practice around engaging with shift workers and Trade Unions.

Co-designing shift patterns and wider shift work solutions in a transparent and collaborative way can avoid potential employee relations issues and subsequent disruption.

We’ve produced a full summary on this aspect of the Employment Rights Act and what it means for shift working organisations here.

Simplifying trade union recognition process:

This part of the Employment Rights Act removed the member threshold for union recognition from 40% to 10%.

This will be followed by an updated Code of Practice on their recognition in October 2026.

Collective redundancy consultation threshold:

A collective redundancy consultation is legally required if a UK employer proposes to make 20 or more employees redundant within a 90-day period, regardless of where the individuals are located.

Previously, if this was one location (for example one factory owned by a business with several sites), consultation only needed to be with employees at the site proposing to make redundancies.

By not consulting, this triggers potential protective awards of up to 90 days’ pay per employee.

Employment Rights Act changes have increased the maximum protective award to 180 days and changed the trigger to count employees across all sites rather than just one.

Day one rights for key employment protections

Several major rights under the Employment Rights Act are now available from day one of employment, and new rules around redundancy and trade unions have also come into force:

1. Sick pay eligibility

Instead of the fourth day of illness, statutory sick pay (SSP) will be paid from the first.

Shift workers must have previously earnt a minimum amount to be eligible for statutory sick pay, but this has been removed.

2. Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave

Shift workers are now eligible from day one for paternity leave, whereas they previously had to be employed for 26 weeks before qualifying.

For unpaid leave, an individual had to be employed at an organisation for a year before qualifying.

Establishment of the Fair Work Agency

The Employment Rights Act includes the introduction of The Fair Work Agency (FWA).

This UK government body is responsible for enforcement around employment rights, including minimum wage, statutory sick pay and holiday pay.

As part of its mandate, it can hold unannounced visits to employers and launch proactive investigations.

It requires organisations to maintain accurate holiday pay, paid leave and overtime records covering a six-year period.

This includes workers with irregular hours, those on zero-hours contracts and part-year employment.

Impact on employers with shift workers:

The Fair Work Agency’s enforcement remit raises the stakes for governance around shift work management (audit trail, record quality and accuracy of payroll and leave).

For many employers of shift workers, there is the risk that current rules, processes and systems do not adequately support complexity or variance.

For example:

– Inconsistent application of overtime and shift swap rules.

– Holiday pay calculations that don’t reflect variable hours correctly.

– Gaps in time and attendance (T&A) records that make it difficult to evidence compliance.

Because the Fair Work Agency can undertake unannounced visits and proactive investigations, organisations with shift workers will benefit from clear and accurate data, policies, processes and systems across all aspects of shift work to ensure they can evidence compliance quickly and easily.

In addition to rostering, HR, payroll and workforce management data, the clarity of contract and policy language also matters, especially where day-to-day management has evolved beyond what’s written and there are many and varied localised shift work practices.

Given potential penalties of up to 200% of wage shortfalls and the reputational impact, it’s sensible to audit the governance systems and approaches that underpin your shift work now.

What the Employment Rights Act means for shift work and shift workers

It’s clear The Employment Rights Act is aiming to ensure shift workers benefit from greater predictability and transparency.

Employers who act now by reviewing ways of working and the policies and practices that underpin them, will not only stay compliant, but also generate significant performance and people benefits.

Organisations that adapt early will be better positioned to:

– Manage labour costs and improve productivity.

– Improve recruitment and retention.

– Strengthen their employer brand.

– Reduce legal and operational risks.

– Improve shift worker engagement.

– Support employee health and wellbeing.

– Reduce health and safety and fatigue risk

Shift Work Health

The effects of shift work on physical and mental health are clear…so responsible employers need to provide shift workers with tailored support across sleep, nutrition, exercise and social issues.

optashift will help you deliver a programme that blends strategic, operational, practical and technical solutions that are designed in collaboration with your workforce.

Steps employers of shift workers can take to prepare

Forward-thinking organisations are already taking steps around the legislative changes contained within the Employment Rights Act.

Key actions you can take include:

1. Assess if current shift patterns are fit for purpose

Use data analytics and engagement to understand the current picture of demand, capacity absence, overtime, demographics and sentiment to identify if different shift patterns provide better alignment, flexibility and resilience.

2. Review shift work management processes

Set a clear standard around handling variances (e.g. minimum notice periods) to reduce avoidable last-minute changes and define who can approve any exceptions.

Where change is unavoidable, ensure the rationale is recorded consistently so decisions are transparent and defensible – especially when responding to predictable working pattern requests.

3. Audit zero-hours and casual worker arrangements

Identify where working hours have become ’regular in practice‘ and assess which roles are better suited to providing contracted consistency or variable capacity.

Consider your operating and resourcing model in the round to potentially identify new ways of working that better suit a move away from contingent labour.

4. Strengthen workforce planning and forecasting

Improve demand forecasting and scenario planning so shift work decisions are driven by evidence rather than legacy practices or gut feel.

This reduces cost, improves fairness and makes it easier to justify decisions when requests cannot be accommodated.

Consider whether your current data quality, governance frameworks and workforce management systems are sufficient to support compliance with the Employment Rights Act.

5. Refresh policies, handbooks and contracts

Hygiene is key. Ensure policies are defined and clearly describe rules around aspects like notice, change control, overtime, leave and flexible working.

Train frontline managers so decision making rules and rationale are understood and applied consistently.

This is often the difference between a well-governed system and one that unintentionally creates risk through localised practices.

6. Build a robust shift work governance pack

Create a set of defined core documents that are co-designed with your workforce and understood by all.

These can include shift work core principles (e.g. fairness, fatigue risk, predictability), standard management rules (i.e. overtime requests, shift swaps), a clear audit trail for rota changes and an approach for engaging around changes to shift patterns and wider shift work policy.

This clarity strengthens assurance for leaders and encourages trust within shift workers.

How optashift can help

optashift has vast experience helping organisations to assess shift work, identify optimal and compliant solutions…and work with all stakeholders to implement the necessary changes.

We’re helping many customers adapt to the current and future requirements set out in the Employment Rights Act.

Get in touch if you’d like to speak to one of our shift work experts about your compliance-readiness.