Holiday entitlement and periods of sickness...on a zero hours contract

[LackaDAISYcal]

I work as a care assistant, and am effectively on a zero hours contract, meaning the company are under no onlugation to give me any work (though this rarely, if ever happens)
As my working hours to vary from week to week, therein a seemingly convoluted formula that head office use to work out holiday entitlements.

I'be been with them since March last year, and have taken dome holiday, about 15 days in real tetms. I then had an extended period of illness and was receiving SSP for about 20 weeks. I have been back at work dince the middle of Feb, and asked for clarification on holidays as I need a couple of days off. My line manager told me that the system is showing me as having had 3.5 days too much holiday, probably because of the five months I didn't work.

My question is whether holiday continues to accrue during periods of sickness? Or does the zero hours contract mean it's entirely on a bums on seat tome basis. I am very confused!

and crap at spelling!

Normally, holidays do continue to accrue during an extended period of sick leave, as they do during maternity leave. Not sure about zero hours contracts though, sorry. Can you see anything on the direct.gov.uk website?

I'be had a look, and can't see much at all relating to zero hours. I have found stuff on calculating holiday pay for a zero hours contract, but not on how it all works when ssp is involved.

hi calculation is based on hoursed worked - on Gov.direct it should explain how this is calculated.

with regards to accruing time whislt off sick/mat leave - I am not sure.

In theory as you earn holiday based on hours worked (then averaged etc) if you are not working, you would not earn anything... but this puts you at a disadvantage if you were to go on mat leave - so can't see this being right as there would be claims of unfair treatment.

Maybe ACAS can help?

I had figured out the hours worked bit, thete is a calculation of 12.07% or some such figure for working out No. of hours. Now, although I wasn't physically working, so nothing to base the 12ish% on, I was still employed and being paid by the company, and retaining all other basic contractual rights. I even found something that said you are actually entitled to take paid holiday whilst still on sick leave, and I think this is a statutory right, so would cover a zero hours contract as well.
I may call ACAS tomorrow, so I am armed with more information before seeing my manager tomorrow afternoon.
My employers are notoriously bad at man management though, so I'm not looking forward to breaching the subject. They also promised me a change in role when I came back, but I'm doing the same job I was before. And after a month and a half, I'm starting to struggle again :(
I'm also worried they will make me pay back what they see as an overpayment.

ACAS were very helpful when I called them about a similar issue. Good luck!

I am on a zero hours contract. Holiday is worked out on an average hours worked basis, month by month; which seems to be the only way to do it.

Are you definitely getting SSP and not ESA? I ask because the lack of set working days means that there are no 'waiting days' which means you are not entitled to it automatically. My company know all the loopholes

ACAS say that there are no clear guidelines on zero hour contracts until someone tests it in court...

Thanks for the replies. Definately SSP...it says it right there on my pay slips and paid at the rate of £81.60 per week.

I've had further clarification from my line manager. She said that as I was not working whilst on SSP, they don't count this in the calculation. They have worked out the number of hours entitlement at 12.07% (this is the right figure for calculating entitlement for workers with varying hours) of the actual hours I have logged both before and after my illness, which amounts to around 63 hours holiday entitlement.

They have then said this equates to 9 days (based obv on a 7 hour day), and as I've taken 2 weeks and 3 days so far (13 days) I have a deficit of 4 days.

They are ignoring the fact that at most I work a four hour day, not a seven hour day.

I have done my research, which states that holidays accrue over period of sickness, and that 28 days is the legal minimum. How they work out hours accrued over sickness period is a question though, and I'm assuming they will use the zero hours thing in this. I'm struggling to find information online regarding how this would work.

I am waiting on a call back from HR, but I fear I may have a fight on my hands :(

marriednotdead, everyone is entitled to SSP, if they have earned enough to take them over the NI threshold for at least 8 weeks prior to going off sick.

And as far as I can see, even if on a zero hours contract, if you work a regularish number of hours (in my case around 22 hours a week), then there is an implied contract to work those hours and the associated contractual protection with it.

It's fucking complicated though.

I wish you were right. If you do not have set working days, you cannot therefore have the 4 waiting days that precede your 5th day and beginning of paid SSP period. I went through all this last year, consulted several departments of HMRC and ACAS to no avail. I qualified in every other way. My shifts vary from week to week and on a zero hour contract, there are no implied contracted hours, regardless of what you actually end up doing.

The final proof came when I was paid ESA 'as I was not entitled to SSP'.

If your company are paying you SSP in those circumstances then believe me you are lucky.