Hospitality glossary · People and retention
A zero-hours contract is an employment contract with no guaranteed minimum hours — the employer offers work as it comes up, and the worker is under no obligation to take it.
In practice
Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.
They are lawful in the UK; exclusivity clauses inside them are not. Workers on them still accrue holiday and are still entitled to the National Minimum or National Living Wage for the hours they do work. In hospitality they are most defensible for events, genuine seasonal peaks, and student staff who want the flexibility themselves.
Making them the default for core team members. Unpredictable income is one of the most reliable predictors of a resignation, and the flexibility is almost always worth less to the business than the turnover it generates.
Questions
Something here that doesn’t match what you’re seeing in your own business? That is usually worth a conversation rather than another article.
A zero-hours contract is an employment contract with no guaranteed minimum hours — the employer offers work as it comes up, and the worker is under no obligation to take it. They are lawful in the UK; exclusivity clauses inside them are not. Workers on them still accrue holiday and are still entitled to the National Minimum or National Living Wage for the hours they do work. In hospitality they are most defensible for events, genuine seasonal peaks, and student staff who want the flexibility themselves.
Making them the default for core team members. Unpredictable income is one of the most reliable predictors of a resignation, and the flexibility is almost always worth less to the business than the turnover it generates.
WHY Hospitality