Zero Hours Contract Template

Description

This downloadable and editable template zero hours contract is a type of contract of employment that is designed to give the employer the maximum allowable flexibility over an employee’s working hours, and is drafted in-line with the Employment Rights Act. It is our most popular template, having been downloaded and used by over 2,000 businesses across the UK and worldwide.

We regularly update our zero hours contract template based on industry developments, changes to the law, and user feedback. This document was recently updated to include provisions for automatic enrolment under the Pensions Act and also the recently enacted Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill which renders employment exclusivity unenforceable. Under the new Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, employers are no longer able to prevent zero hours employees from undertaking other work.

Contents of the Zero Hours Contract Template

• Title, date, parties
• Definitions and interpretation
• Role at the organisation
• Reporting, who the employee’s manager will be
• Typical place of work, including provisions for requiring the employee to work elsewhere
• Duration, including commencement date and (optionally) an initial probationary period
• Other work, restrictions on other employment or work
• Pay, covering the payment only for hours actually worked
• Expenses, for claiming any out of pocket expenses
• Typical hours of work, for example when the employee should be available to accept work, and detailing that no particular amount of work is guaranteed
• Duties, including requirement for reasonable diligence, and following company policies and procedures
• Holiday, for example paid holiday entitlement, pro-rata and holiday authorisation
• Health and safety responsibilities
• Absence and sickness, such as requiring a doctor’s certification and behavioural expectations during sickness
• Medical examinations
• Dress code for meetings and normal office attendance
• Ethics, in line with anti-bribery guidelines, covering an employee’s conduct
• Confidentiality, detailing restrictions on the sharing of confidential information
• Staff records and the use of personal data
• Security and property, including conduct during the use of company equipment and access
• Notice and termination, for example reasons for termination and its effect
• Pension, including an opt-in for automatic enrollment in to a pension scheme
• Miscellaneous, for example statement of entire understanding, waiver, enforceability, and jurisdiction
• Signatures

What is a zero hours contract?

A zero hours contract allows the employer to have no obligation to provide any specific amount of work and essentially places the employee on call. Under a zero hours arrangement, the employee must be available for work during certain hours (specified in the contract) and must attend work if the employer requests. The employee gets paid only for the hours actually worked.

As with most standard zero hours contracts or contracts of employment, our template covers the full range of employment rights and obligations extensively, setting out core details of the job, for example the role, pay, place of work and hours of availability, as well as a range of more extensive provisions, such as duties, holidays, absence, and termination.

This zero hours contract template also contains a range of detailed good practice provisions, for example a full code of ethics and restrictions on outside work to limit conflicts of interest, a detailed confidentiality agreement, rules and regulations governing the use of equipment and specifying how to close off physical access upon termination of the contract, health and safety, and many other sections.

The contract comes with guidance notes inside, showing you how and where to edit it. You can simply fill in the highlighted sections, or you can modify any of the wording to suit your specific needs.

FREE Sample of the Zero Hours Contract Template

Download a FREE sample of this zero hours contract template to check that it is what you are looking for before buying.