BREAKING NEWS:  we predicted at WorkSmarter that the Government would need to do something about the Harpur Trust v Brazel holiday pay Supreme Court ruling...

Today, the Government has launched a consultation on how holiday entitlement for part-year and irregular hours workers should be calculated.

As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision last year, part-year workers are entitled to a larger annual paid holiday entitlement than part-time workers who work the same total number of hours across the year and confusion has been rampant amongst those employers who employee zero-hours workers.

In order to address this disparity and confusion, the Government has launched a consultation seeking views on introducing legislation that allows employers to pro-rate holiday entitlement for part-year workers and workers with irregular hours (such as zero hours workers) so that they receive leave in proportion to the total annual hours they work. It proposes to achieve this by introducing a 52-week holiday entitlement reference period for these workers, based on the proportion of time spent working over the previous 52 weeks. Importantly, weeks in which workers perform no work will be included in the holiday entitlement reference period.

The consultation closes on 9 March 2023 so watch this space!   This promises to be a significant development for holiday pay and one which most employers will need to pay close attention to.