New Holiday Pay Rules

For holiday years commencing on or after 1 April 2024, we have got yet more legislation relating to holiday pay to contend with. Does your holiday year start from January? You can relax for a little bit longer!

You may well recall the Harper Trust and Brazel case from not too long ago. It determined that a worker who worked an irregular pattern of days was entitled to a perhaps disproportionate amount of holiday pay when taken against their actual working time. The government has sought to redress this issue through the new rules.

Introducing the concept of the ‘part year worker’ and the ‘irregular hours worker’.

Part year workers are those who work, unsurprisingly, for part of the year. They must also only receive pay during part of the year. There must be periods of at least a week where they do not work, and are not paid. Those who work part of the year but are paid consistently throughout the year don’t fall under the definition.

Irregular hours workers are those whose hours are wholly or mostly variable from one pay period to the next.

If you’ve got workers who fall into these categories, it’s time to become an egg-head!

Not only are there new rules for how holiday accrues for these workers, but the employer has a choice as to whether they pay rolled up holiday pay.

A summary of the new rules can be found here: very exciting holiday pay rules

If you need help updating contracts and policies to account for the new rules, or anything else employment law related, please get in touch.