Holiday pay – are you doing it right?

Everyone loves a good holiday!

But holidays are a minefield from an employment law perspective. With recent court judgments, many employers may not be legally compliant in the way that they deal with holidays.

Some of the tricky issues include:

• When does the law require you to include commission, bonuses and overtime in holiday pay?
• Over what reference period do you need to average pay where an employee’s pay and hours vary?
• When do you need to allow employees to carry over holiday, do they have to ask for it to be carried over, and how long can they carry it over for?
• How do we deal with bank holidays for part-time employees?
• Might we have to pay holiday to our self-employed contractors?
• Can we use rolled-up holiday pay?
• How do we calculate holiday for zero-hour workers?
• Can we avoid paying holiday pay on termination of employment or just pay a nominal sum?
• Can we have different rules for statutory and contractual holiday?
• If we’re in breach of the holiday pay rules, how far back can employees claim?

Comment

Holiday pay arrears can be extremely costly but there are steps you can take now to minimise liability. We can offer you a holiday pay audit in which we discuss your holiday arrangements, identify any non-compliant practices and provide tailored advice on how to resolve the issues and minimise liability.

For queries on holiday pay, please speak to a member of our Employment Team who will be happy to advise.