The move last Friday, which would apply to all workers and employees including agency workers, comes after a review found many workers on zero-hours contracts experience ‘one-sided flexibility’.

“This means people across the country are currently left waiting, unable to get on with their lives in case of being called up at the last minute for a shift. With a more predictable working pattern, workers will have a guarantee of when they are required to work, with hours that work for them,” the government said in a media statement.

If a worker’s existing working pattern lacks certainty in terms of the hours they work, the times they work or if it is a fixed-term contract for less than 12 months, they will be able to make a formal application to change their working pattern to make it more predictable.

Labour markets minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “Hard working staff on zero-hours contracts across the country put their lives on hold to make themselves readily available for shifts that may never actually come.

“Employers having one-sided flexibility over their staff is unfair and unreasonable. This Bill will ensure workers can request more predictable working patterns where they want them, so they can get on with their daily lives.

Blackpool South MP Benton said: “A significant number of my constituents experience unpredictable work. Being able to ask their employers to consider requests for a more predictable working pattern such as working on set days, or for a permanent contract, will help them to work more predictable hours and provide more reliably for their families in some cases, and help with their work-life balance in other situations.

“This Bill gives people a right to ask their employers to consider requests and will be welcomed by thousands of people.”

The move comes as part of a package of policies the government said it is supporting to further workers’ rights across the country, such as:
•    supporting parents of babies who need neonatal additional care with paid neonatal care leave
•    requiring employers to ensure that all tips, gratuities, and service charges received must be paid to workers in full
•    offering pregnant women and new parents greater protection against redundancy
•    entitling unpaid carers to a period of unpaid leave to support those most in need
•    providing millions of employees with a ‘day one’ right to request flexible working, and a greater say over when, where, and how they work.

“These policies will increase workforce participation, protect vulnerable workers, and level the playing field, ensuring unscrupulous businesses don’t have a competitive advantage,” the government said.

Matthew Taylor’s 2017 review of modern working practices and the gig economy recommended the introduction of this policy, noting that it would support many workers who currently experience ‘one-sided flexibility’.

Subject to parliamentary approval, all workers and employees will have this new right once it comes into force, however, they must first have worked for their employer a set period before they make their application. This period will be set out in regulations and is expected to be 26 weeks. Given the proposals aim to support those with unpredictable contracts, workers will not have had to have worked continuously during that period.

Leading recruitment organisations have spoken out against zero-hour contracts, saying that one-sided flexibility should be consigned to the past.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and APSCo were responding to the bill that will give workers the right to ask for a more predictable work pattern.

“We agree that ‘one-sided flexibility’ should be consigned to the past – but in our experience, the vast majority of recruiters already run excellent services that allow people to say when they are and are not available for work,” said Shazia Ejaz, the REC’s director of campaigns.

“Zero-hours contracts are not the same as agency work – but both have their place in the modern labour market, as long as workers’ rights under either type of contract are always properly explained and enforced.”

Tania Bowers, global public policy director at the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), agreed that the bill would provide workers with the right to request more predictable work patterns.

However, agency workers would suffer more complexity to their arrangements.

“The hope is that it will make employers think more strategically about their workforce needs over a given period, as they will be unable to so easily rely on labour just being ‘on tap’, but in the context of agency workers, including those employed by umbrella companies, it creates more complexity and administration,” said Bowers.