The department for Business Enterprise and Industrial Strategy have updated their guidance on holiday pay right extending the prior 12 paid week average requirement to a new 52 paid weeks average for any individual whose pay may vary.
All workers are entitled to 5.6 paid holiday weeks in a full year. Generally that equates to 28 days leave for a full year minimum. For those who work only fixed days, then the number of days can be based on the number of fixed days worked. Where the days vary, then a week consists of 5 days for holiday purposes. Entitlement is not based on hours worked and accrued.
Calculating holiday pay for workers with irregular hours or those on zero-hours contracts
Workers with irregular hours or zero-hours contracts are entitled to paid holiday. They always have been.
The holiday entitlement calculator [shows] how much holiday a worker on irregular hours or a zero-hours contract is entitled to within their current leave year.
For casual workers with no normal hours, including workers on a zero-hours contract, the holiday pay they receive will be their average pay over the previous 52 weeks worked (taking the last whole week in which they worked and earned pay, ending on a Saturday, as the most recent week. Unless they are paid weekly on a day other than a Saturday – see previous section, The definition of a ‘week’ for the purpose of the holiday pay reference period’.
The reference period must include the last 52 weeks for which they actually earned, and so excludes any weeks where no work was performed. This may mean that the actual reference period takes into account pay data from further back than 52 weeks from the date of their leave. However it should go back no more than 104 weeks; if this gives fewer than 52 weeks to take into account, then the reference period is shortened to that lower number of weeks.
A paid week will include a week in which the worker was paid any amount for work undertaken during that week. Only if no pay at all is received in a week, should it be discounted as part of the 52-week reference period.
Industry reports have shown that around 1.8 million workers have been historically denied their holiday leave and pay rights. It’s time for U.K. PLC to get its house in order and meet the spirit and requirements of the law. Holiday entitlement is not based on time worked, but on the duration of the employment since the contractual start point. Many UK employers are not providing employees with their statutory rights. Government proposals will see Holiday Pay enforcement being put in the hands of a new single enforcer which will include the enforcement of minimum pay as well as holiday and other employment rights.
PAYadvice.UK 7/4/2020
