I am on a zero hour contract at work.

Rotas are written Tuesday morning for the following week. So on Tuesday morning. I requested the following weekend off (17th, 18th), I was told no, because no one was available to cover the work I was just rota’d in for.

Am I right in thinking I can just refuse to work the weekend because I don’t have any contracted hours?

I’d be careful if you still want to work there. If you’ve zero contracted hours then by the same logic they don’t have to give you any shifts.

Throw a sickie?, zero hour contracts in large organisations are crap

Are you employed as in PAYE or a contractor (SC60 etc)?
If the latter, I’d be tempted to just say I’m not available to work that day.

Read you contract. Although you are on zero hours it is likely you have provided a set of times you are available to work and need to give enough advanced notice if you cannot work some of our “available” times. Bit like booking holiday.

Zero hours are to give the employer flexibility, not the employee.

I have two zero hours contracts with two large companies (G4S & Reliance), they are very accommodating I must say. One of the firms stipulate I must work a minimum of two shifts a month for them but the other contract is totally flexible, some months I don’t do any work for them…of course this works both ways, if I turn work away they stop ringing to offer shifts….I like this way of working and ultimately want to get to a situation where I have 4 or 5 bank/zero contracts doing a variety of medical work and can pick and choose my hours….Mon to Fri 9-5 sounds about right!