Holiday pay calculations for part-year and irregular hours workers

You may to choose to have a staycation or travel abroad for a holiday either way we all love to have a holiday and enjoy a much-needed break from work and come back refreshed.

For most workers to be able to take time off work and enjoy a holiday requires using their holiday entitlement. Did you know that almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, you should also be aware of the following:

The employer:

• can include bank and public holidays as part of the statutory entitlement
• can choose to round up the holiday entitlement, but cannot round it down
• must provide holiday pay during the statutory leave
• can provide more paid holiday – this will be in the employment contract and is called ‘contractual leave entitlement’

However, holiday pay calculations for part-time and irregular workers has been thrown up in the air recently following the supreme Court’s judgment in the Brazel v Harpur Trust case. The decision of this case has caused confusion over the calculations for part-year and irregular workers and sent the payrolling world into uncertainty and has employers needing to review their annual leave practices after common calculation methods are no longer considered lawful.

Holiday entitlement and holiday pay can be a complicated matter, it is fact-specific and there are still a number of uncertainties since the decision of this case. Luckily it appears that the government feel the same way and have announced a consultation for part-time and irregular hours workers holiday calculations. I have already completed my responses to their survey in the hopes that it will help with the decision for the best and simplest calculation method, as well continuing to be fair to all workers.

If you would like guidance for calculating pay for part-time and irregular hour workers we would be happy to meet with you for a chat so please book a call with Caroline and see if she can help?

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