HR question - if you regularly work overtime and holiday pay

[OvertimeThinkTank]

Sorry not AIBU but I know this area is busy so might find the answer I need, if not could you point me in the right direction please.

I’m contracted to work 3 days a week but since March of last year, I’ve been working 5 days. I agreed to do this but didn’t want to make it permanent incase I needed to drop the days again, so the 2 extra days a week are classed as overtime, if I don’t work either of those 2 days, for hospital/GP appointments for example, I don’t get paid and wouldn’t expect to.

Holiday time is coming up and as usually happens, I just get paid my 3 days but it’s got me thinking. As I’ve been now regularly working extra days, over 12 months, should my holiday entitlement reflect this?

I’ve been employed by the company for over 10 years.

Has anyone else been in this position?

Gov.uk and ACAS both explain the holiday pay issue but I can’t find anywhere on the link that explains what variable hours means in the event they suggest you’re on fixed hours because your contract stipulates 3 days. That part is just common sense!

PP is correct in saying it’s a 52 week reference period not 12 too!

Basically you want the perks of full time work (pay and extra holiday) without the drawbacks (flexibility to reduce to 3 days whenever you want)

Erm. No.

@LampLighter414 why wouldn’t I want paying for working extra! I don’t class that as a perk, they’re not paying me for nothing, that would be a perk and it’s not as if I’ve worked extra for a few weeks, it’s over 12 months, so yes, I believe that there should be some additional holidays due to the timescale.

Holiday pay should be paid over a 52 week average. They should add up your basic and overtime over that period and divide it by the total days or hours worked to get the average

Except, the law entitles OP to do exactly that.

And she’s doing them a favour by agreeing to work overtime when she’s only contracted to three days!

Acas have confirmed that I should be entitled to more holidays as they should be based on days worked.

Will speak to my Employer about it later this week.

Thanks everyone!

I assume that the extra days you work do not attract any premium pay that overtime at weekends etc would do.

A very good and short article that explains the legal reasoning is:
www.xperthr.co.uk/faq/when-does-overtime-have-to-be-included-in-holiday-pay/156145/

The key phrase is:
The Court of Appeal held that voluntary overtime must be included if it is part of a pattern of work that is sufficiently regular and settled for payments made in respect of it to amount to normal remuneration.

I assume that the extra days you work do not attract any premium pay that overtime at weekends etc would do. So in your case it seems that in every 8 week period, you work 24 normal days and 15 days overtime, and this is regular and settled. So for one week's holiday you should receive 39/40 of 5 days pay, ie. 4.875x 1 day's pay.

Late to this as I see you’ve spoken to ACAS but this link might help you when you speak to your employer, good luck!

www.acas.org.uk/checking-holiday-entitlement/calculating-holiday-pay

Your holiday entitlement should have changed. If you pay into a pension that should have been upped too. I think it was a case UNISON won? I’ll see if I can find it.