Zero Hours Contract & Furlough

Paulineb1508

Asking on behalf of my daughter... she is 21 and has been on a zero hours contract with the same employer for 5 years in a cafe while going through uni.
Before lockdown she had been working approx 3 days a week. All staff had been furloughed since April.
Her employer has opened up again and brought in 4 other members of staff, but not my daughter. My daughter's employer has informed her that she will be bringing her off furlough at end of July but can't guarantee her any hours - she will contact her if she needs her, leaving her with potentially no income for August.
Can anyone tell me if she has any rights in this situation?
Thanks

Lomast

I'm afraid not, that's the whole point of zero hours contracts they don't have to offer any hours if they don't have them available

Comms69

She can claim UC during this time, but i'm not aware of how that works with FT education

sharpe106

You don't have many rights as a zero hour contract employee

https://www.acas.org.uk/zero-hours-contracts

MinuteNoodles

sharpe106 said:

You don't have many rights as a zero hour contract employee

https://www.acas.org.uk/zero-hours-contracts

You have the same rights as any other employee. The only right you don't have is a guarantee of work in any week or pay if there is no work offered. Other than that you have full rights any other employee has.

Inoshe

Paulineb1508 said:

Asking on behalf of my daughter... she is 21 and has been on a zero hours contract with the same employer for 5 years in a cafe while going through uni.
Before lockdown she had been working approx 3 days a week. All staff had been furloughed since April.
Her employer has opened up again and brought in 4 other members of staff, but not my daughter. My daughter's employer has informed her that she will be bringing her off furlough at end of July but can't guarantee her any hours - she will contact her if she needs her, leaving her with potentially no income for August.
Can anyone tell me if she has any rights in this situation?
Thanks

If your daughter was working regular hours for an extended period she was not zero hours worker even if the contract says she was. Employment tribunals have found in favour of employees who can show they were not workers on a casual ad hoc basis.
https://www.warnergoodman.co.uk/site/blog/news/casual-or-zero-hour-contracts-employment-status