FREE THE NIGHT AND SAVE THE SCENE SCOTLAND RESPOND TO CONSULTATION ON ZERO-HOURS WORK
Free The Night and Save the Scene Scotland have submitted a joint response to the UK Government’s consultation on reforms to zero-hours and similar contracts, calling for stronger protections for workers while preserving the genuine flexibility that nightlife, hospitality, music and events often need.
The night-time economy does not operate like a conventional nine-to-five workplace. Festivals need temporary staff, concerts require people for individual events and venues sometimes need unexpected sickness cover.
But flexibility and insecurity are not the same thing. Someone recruited for a three-day festival is in a very different position from somebody working behind the same bar most Friday and Saturday nights for months while still having no certainty about their hours or income.
That distinction is at the heart of our response. We support the Government’s objective of ending one-sided flexibility while retaining genuine worker choice.
What is being proposed?
The Government’s reforms are intended to give eligible workers rights to guaranteed hours reflecting the work they regularly perform, reasonable notice of shifts, and payments when shifts are cancelled, moved or cut short at short notice.
This is not a blanket ban on zero-hours contracts. Genuine casual work can remain, but workers who are effectively doing regular jobs should have greater security.
What we are calling for
Our joint response recommends:
a 12-week reference period for establishing a regular pattern of work;
a 20-hour threshold, preventing very low-hours contracts from simply replacing zero-hours contracts;
guaranteed hours that reflect the hours people actually work;
protection for genuinely seasonal and event-specific employment, but no blanket exemption for hospitality, nightlife or events;
two weeks’ notice as the normal expectation for shifts;
a seven-day statutory short-notice period;
compensation based on what a worker would actually have earned;
100% compensation where an employer cancels, moves or cuts a promised shift within those seven days; and
strong enforcement through the Fair Work Agency.
When a shift is cancelled, the worker pays the price
Government research cited in our response found that 44% of hospitality workers in insecure work had experienced shifts or working hours being cancelled with seven days’ notice or less.
That can mean more than simply losing a few hours’ wages. Workers may already have arranged childcare, paid for transport, turned down other work or organised another job around the promised shift.
This is especially important in a sector where pay is already low. Living Wage Foundation figures cited in our response show that 53.1% of hospitality jobs were paid below the real Living Wage in 2025 — around 760,000 jobs. In arts, entertainment and recreation, the figure was 29.2%.
Our position is simple: if an employer promises someone work and then cancels, moves or cuts that work within seven days, the worker should receive 100% of the income they would have earned.
Poor ticket sales, overstaffing or bad rota planning are commercial risks. They should not simply be transferred to workers.
Flexibility has to work both ways
Some workers genuinely value casual work. Students, performers, people with caring responsibilities and those combining several jobs may want the freedom to accept and decline shifts.
We want to preserve that choice.
But wanting flexibility over when you work is not the same as uncertainty over whether you will earn anything at all.
An employer should be able to offer someone a shift at short notice because another worker has called in sick. But the person receiving that call should also be genuinely free to say no. Workers should not effectively be kept on standby without the security of guaranteed work.
Good employers should also not be undercut by businesses whose model depends on transferring an unreasonable amount of risk onto low-paid workers. Stronger employment standards and viable hospitality businesses are not incompatible.
What about Northern Ireland?
Employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland, so these particular reforms apply in Great Britain. However, Northern Ireland is developing its own reforms through the proposed Good Jobs Employment Rights Bill.
We support the principle behind those proposals, but believe the suggested 26-week period before a worker can seek a banded-hours arrangement is too long.
The 12-week approach proposed in Great Britain strikes a better balance. If somebody has worked most Friday and Saturday nights in the same venue for three months, there should already be enough evidence that this is regular work.
A sustainable night-time economy needs sustainable jobs
Viable businesses matter. So do the people who make those businesses possible.
A sustainable night-time economy needs workers who can pay their bills, plan their lives and afford to remain in the sector.
Business flexibility and decent employment are not competing objectives.
The challenge is to protect genuine flexibility while ending arrangements where flexibility exists almost entirely for one side.
That is the balance we have urged the Government to strike.
The consultation closes on 25 August 2026.
Free The Night and Save the Scene Scotland’s full joint response is available to read here.
