New right

Predictable hours: the right you can use from 6 October 2026

Updated 6 October 2026

From 6 October 2026 , a new statutory right kicks in that sits alongside the right to request flexible working, and it matters if your hours move around week to week. Under the Employment Rights (Amendment, Protection from Harassment and Worker Protection) Act 2025, the route is through section 40A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, as inserted in 2025 and commenced for new requests on this date. If you are a worker or an employee, and you have been on your current working pattern for at least 26 weeks, you can ask your employer for a more predictable contract. The right covers three things: the number of hours you are required to work, the times or days you are required to work, and the place you are required to work from. Your employer must handle the request reasonably, weigh your reasons against a closed list of business grounds if they want to say no, respond in writing within one month, and offer a right of appeal. If they ignore the request, refuse without giving a permitted reason, or refuse in a way that a tribunal considers unreasonable, you can bring a claim to an employment tribunal.

Who can ask for predictable hours from 6 October 2026

Two things have to be true for you to use this right. First, you have to be a worker or an employee, which means the same group who can already ask for flexible working. Agency workers are in scope on the same footing as direct hires under the 2025 amendments, which removes a long-standing gap. The second thing is time on the pattern. Your existing working pattern, taken as a whole, must have applied to you for at least 26 weeks before the day you submit a request.

You can only make one predictable working pattern request in any 12 month period, and you cannot have an outstanding request of either kind when you make a new one. So if you are mid flexible working, you will need to wait. There is no cap on the number of times you can be asked about the same pattern, but the right is structured so each request is one application with a start date and a proposed change.

Zero hours, casual, and term time only workers are the obvious group who will use this, but it is not limited to them. If your employer regularly shifts your start time by an hour, rotates your days, or moves you between sites, you can ask for the pattern to be fixed, even if your total hours do not change.

One thing this right does not do is guarantee you a different contract. Your employer can refuse on a listed ground, and the change can be temporary. What the right does is force a written, time limited decision with a real reason, which is something many workers have never had.

What a predictable working pattern request must say

The request is in writing, dated, and it has to set out four things. The pattern you currently work. The change you want and when you want it to start. Whether you have made a previous request, and if so when. The impact you think the change would have on your employer, and how any cost or disruption could be dealt with. This last point is not optional, and a request that omits it is treated as not made, which restarts the clock.

A model form is not required, but ACAS published a template alongside the new code of practice on requests for flexible and predictable working in September 2026, and the version on gov.uk carries the section numbers you need. Send the request by email or letter so you have a written record. If your employer has an internal HR system, you can also use that, but keep a copy and a screenshot of the date it was submitted.

You can ask for one or more of three things in the same request. A more predictable number of hours, meaning a fixed minimum or a fixed band. A more predictable schedule of days or times, meaning set shifts rather than a roster that changes each week. A more predictable place of work, meaning a fixed site or a fixed split between sites. The right does not extend to pay, role, or status, and a request that tries to bundle those in is the kind of thing a tribunal will look at carefully.

One practical point. The start date on the request cannot be retrospective, and it cannot be the same day the request is made. Most people pick a date at least one month ahead, which gives the employer the time the code expects them to take to consider it properly.

How your employer must consider the request

The duty on the employer is to deal with the request in a reasonable manner. The ACAS code of practice, which becomes a statutory code on this date, sets out what reasonable looks like. It includes discussing the request with you in a way that lets you put your reasons, considering the impact on the business, looking at alternatives such as a trial period, and reaching a decision within one month of the day the request was received. The deadline can be extended by a further month if both sides agree in writing, and a refusal letter must explain why and confirm your right of appeal.

Where the employer wants to refuse, they can only do so on one of seven prescribed grounds. The grounds are set out in the new section 80G of the Employment Rights Act 1996, as substituted by the 2025 Act, and they mirror the long-standing flexible working grounds with a small reordering. The grounds are: the burden of additional cost, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, detrimental impact on the recruitment of new staff or retention of existing staff, detrimental impact on business performance, insufficiency of work during the periods the employee would work under the new pattern, planned structural changes to the business, and such other grounds as may be specified in regulations.

If the employer refuses on a reason that is not on this list, the refusal is automatically unreasonable for tribunal purposes. If they refuse on a listed reason but fail to weigh the points you raised, or refuse without offering an appeal, the tribunal can still find the manner unreasonable even if the underlying reason was valid. The compensation for a successful claim is set at a maximum of eight weeks of pay, capped at the statutory maximum weekly figure, and there is no separate award for injury to feelings.

Acas early conciliation before any claim

Before you can lodge a claim that your employer failed to deal with a predictable working pattern request, you have to go through Acas early conciliation, in the same way as a flexible working claim. The six month time limit to bring a claim runs from the date of the employer's final response, including the outcome of any internal appeal, and you can read more about the time limit for flexible working claims on the time limit for a flexible working claim explainer, which uses the same framework.

The early conciliation certificate gives you an extra month on top of the time limit, which matters if the appeal takes a while. Most claims settle before tribunal, and ACAS has confirmed in its 2026 service update that predictable working pattern claims are being routed to the same specialist team that handles flexible working.

Where this overlaps with flexible working

The new right sits alongside flexible working rather than replacing it. The two requests have separate application forms, separate response letters, and separate appeal routes, but they are read together when a tribunal looks at the overall picture. If you ask for both in the same year, the 12 month gap rule applies to each, and you cannot have two outstanding requests at once. If you are not sure which one to use, the practical question is whether the issue is the timing and location of your work, or whether you want to change your total hours or pattern of work. The first maps to predictable hours. The second maps to flexible working. If you want both, raise them as two distinct requests a few weeks apart so each can be considered on its own merits.

What to do in the meantime

If you are already being asked to take a shift at short notice, or your start time has just changed, start a written record from today. Save the messages, note the date, and keep a simple week by week log of the hours and times you actually work, with a column for the time you were told. That log will be the spine of any request and any later claim.

Read the ACAS code of practice on requests for flexible and predictable working, which is the statutory code from 6 October 2026. Use the request template on gov.uk, or draft your own, making sure it covers the four required points and proposes a realistic start date at least one month ahead. If your employer has an internal HR portal, use it but keep the email copy so you have a paper trail.

Send the request to the person named in your contract or staff handbook, or to HR if there is no named contact. Mark it for the attention of the decision maker, and ask for a written response within one month. If you do not hear back, follow up in writing and keep the chain. If the reply is a refusal, check it cites a section 80G ground and offers an appeal. If it does not, you have the basis to start Acas early conciliation within one month of the final response.

Until the change is agreed, keep working your current pattern, and do not refuse shifts on the basis of a request that has not been granted. If your employer retaliates by dropping your hours, changing your shifts in a punitive way, or ending your contract, that is likely to be a detriment claim under section 40C of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and it is automatically unfair in the same way as a flexible working detriment. The fire and rehire: the new statutory code takes effect explainer covers the related route where an employer tries to impose a new pattern by ending and re offering the contract.

One last practical point. The right is new and tribunals are still working out how to apply it, so be specific in what you ask for. A request for a fixed minimum of 16 hours per week, with set shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, is easier to assess than a request for a more stable schedule. The clearer the ask, the harder it is for an employer to refuse on the vague ground of business performance, and the easier it is for a tribunal to see whether the refusal was reasonable.