WFM UK: UK Government Launches Consultation Around Calculating Holidays for Part-Year and Irregular Hours Workers

Overview

Following the Supreme Court judgement in Harpur Trust v Brazel, the UK government has launched a consultation on the calculation of holiday entitlement for both part-year and irregular hours workers.

More information about the judgement can be found here.

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What is the Proposal?

Currently, all employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks' holiday. For employees who work irregular (flexible) hours, entitlement and pay are worked out on the 52-week average (excluding zero pay weeks).

Within the consultation, the proposal is to introduce a reference period for part-year and irregular hours workers to ensure their holiday entitlement is in proportion to the amount of time they spend working.

The proposed legislation is looking to clear up any anomalies caused by allowing employers to pro-rate holiday entitlement for these employees by introducing a 52-week reference period based on the time spent working over the past 52-week period. This 52-week period is not necessarily the same 52 weeks' worth of data specified in the current calculations (52 worked weeks in 104 week period), but it may use the most recent 52 weeks and include the weeks where zero hours have been worked.

The Consultation

The consultation opened on 12th January 2023 and is open until 9th March 2023 and the government is inviting employers, workers, business representatives, unions or interest groups to feedback on the proposals.

Details of the consultation can be found here.

Responses to the consultation can be submitted online or by emailing holidayentitlementconsultation@beis.gov.uk.

Definitions

Part-Year Worker - workers who work for part of the year and are unpaid for the remainder.

Irregular Hours Worker - workers with a completely irregular, non-repeating work pattern.