Are you struggling to calculate holiday pay for staff without fixed hours or fixed rates of pay?

We still receive lots of enquiries from employers asking for advice about how to calculate holiday pay - particularly for workers whose hours are not fixed, or who work term-time only, or have annualised hours.

The law is tricky and if you don't have a payroll system that does the hard work for you, you need to understand the basics.

The government has recently published some very helpful guidance on how to calculate statutory holiday for workers engaged under zero hours contracts or those working irregular hours or on short contracts.

It explains: 

• What to do if you don't have 12 weeks of pay data to use
• The date the holiday pay reference period should start from
• How to calculate holiday pay for those leaving a job

It provides practical examples and also references the key holiday pay cases.

Don't forget - the government also has an online calculator which will work out holiday accrual for workers, including where their employment starts or ends part way through a leave year. But, this only relates to the minimum statutory leave. Therefore, if you offer your staff more than 28 days paid holiday per year (pro-rated for part time staff), you'll have to work out their entitlement manually.

Need more information?

We are experts on holiday pay and can help you understand and apply the law. Please contact Glenn Hayes for more information. 

Our fixed price employment law service

If you are interested in finding out about how we can support you with our fixed-fee annual retainer, or flexible discounted bank of hours service, please contact Rachel Hetherington: rachel.hetherington@irwinmitchell.com or: 44 (0)121 203 5355 for a no obligation quote.