The Government are seeking views on proposals to pro-rata holiday entitlement for part-year and irregular hours workers based on the annual hours they work.
Following the Supreme Court judgement in Harpur Trust v Brazel, the government are consulting on the calculation of holiday entitlement received by part-year and irregular hours workers.
Presently all workers are entitled to 5.6 paid weeks leave, and pay is due at normal pay or based on the 52 paid week average (excluding zero pay weeks).
In the consultation the government propose to introduce a holiday entitlement reference period for part-year and irregular hours workers, to ensure that their holiday pay and entitlement is directly proportionate to the time they spend working.
The proposed holiday entitlement reference period would use the most recent 52 weeks, including those weeks without work.
The Government is considering introducing legislation to resolve anomalies by allowing employers to pro-rate holiday entitlement for part-year workers so that they receive leave in proportion with the total annual hours they work. The simplest way to do this would be to introduce a 52-week holiday entitlement reference period for part-year workers and workers with irregular hours, based on the proportion of time spent working over the previous 52-week period. The proposed holiday entitlement reference period would use the most recent 52 weeks, including those weeks without work.
Employers would potentially be required to hold records of time spent working, this would be similar to the data already required to calculate holiday pay and to comply with the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015.
They also want to understand how entitlement is currently calculated for agency workers and how the consultation proposal might be implemented.
PAYadvice.UK 13/1/2023
