All UK workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid leave each year. The law states that a worker should be paid a week’s pay for a week’s holiday. The rules can be tricky, especially for staff who work for part of the year.
Nurseries can often employ workers on irregular hours, such as several hours one day, no hours the following day and long hours the next day, with these changing each week. It would be difficult to know what a week’s leave and pay would be in these cases.
Employers have calculated leave entitlement for these workers using the percentage method (12.07 per cent), but a Supreme Court case has now made this calculation more complex.
The case (Harpur Trust v Brazel) concerned a visiting music teacher who was a ‘part-year worker’ (someone on a permanent contract for the whole year but who works varying hours during certain parts of the year). Brazel argued that her leave entitlement was calculated incorrectly, and she wasn’t receiving her statutory entitlement (5.6 weeks). She alleged that the 12.07 per cent method should not have been used and she should have had 5.6 weeks’ leave, paid according to her average weekly pay over a 52-week period (discounting weeks not worked).
The Supreme Court effectively dismissed the 12.07 per cent method, and it was held that Brazel’s calculation method was correct. Every worker, including part-year workers, should receive at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year, which should be calculated based on their average weekly pay over a 52-week reference period (ignoring weeks not worked). This appears to not affect calculations for part-time workers with regular working patterns throughout the year or term-time workers who are paid in 12 equal monthly instalments.
Unfortunately, as there is no higher appeal court, it is now down to the Government to decide if it will reform this area of law.
- If you require assistance calculating the holiday entitlement of a worker with an irregular work pattern, please contact us on 01792 776776.
