The Employment (Zero Hours Workers and Banded Weekly Working Hours) Bill was introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly on the 15 November and is currently scheduled for the Second Stage. The Bill seeks to replace zero hours contracts with banded hours, giving workers entitlement to minimum and maximum working hours. It is considered that by introducing Banded Hours Contracts for workers in NI whose employment is on the basis of short-hours, will be provided insofar that there would be a statutory entitlement for such persons to be offered a contract with banded hours.

The Bill will create more certainty for workers in this sort of employment who will often have little assurances of guaranteed work. For example, the Bill aims to provide certainty to the number of hours that they may typically expect to receive and the associated income. Work patterns are proposed to be kept under review every three months with employers obligated to notify a worker of their entitlement to banded hours in writing. There are also provisions seeking to prevent zero hours worker taking on other work prohibited and to make employers pay a worker for the equivalent of three hours work at their hourly rate if they are called out to work but subsequently not given work.