Holiday pay entitlement

[sabbath84]

I've just gone on a weeks holiday from work, before I went I was chatti g to coworkers about holiday pay. They said we only get our contracted hours. This rang a bell in my head and promptly did some research. From the looks of it it should calculated based on overtime as well ie your average wage .

So I do 40 hours contracted but on average an extra 8-10 hours a week extra.

So today I phoned my company who said a catagoric no its just the 40 hours. I then spoke to ACAS and did a bit more research online . while all pointed to the plus overtime worked out over a 12 week average. ACAS also advised to send an email stating my position giving a 7-14 day reply time.

My questions are

1. Has anyone else encountered this ?
2. What was the outcome if you did ?
3. Is there any good templates I can work from to write my email ?

Extra info . its not compulsory overtime , classed as voluntary.

Do you have any kind of employee forum/staff council or similar? It sounds like this is a widespread issue and getting it dealt with effectively might be easier if a group of you address it at once.

Its a massive company. So there might be, i will enquire, Everyone I work with says its the norm. So yes suspect its standard practice that may or may not have been challenged in the past

Well to be fair it's only a recent thing. But as it will need changing completely for everyone at your workplace, it's something that should involve a lot more people. Find out what employee representation arrangements are in place first and take it from there. The more 'noisy' the complaint is the more incentive for your employer to get their head out of the sand!

I think that maybe the only route. As its all a bit wishy washy at the moment. Many cases over the years in the courts but not one that clearly states about it.

Well I disagree really. It was wishy washy for a while, but I think it has now been pretty clearly established in case law that regular overtime (voluntary or otherwise) should be included in holiday pay calculations.

I've seen bits on the different cases. They touched on this point, but not completely. To me its clear cut with out the case law. But is still sufficiently open to large companies exploiting it.

And that's the issue how many companies agent paying it. Everyone at work seemed oblivious to this.

Still trying to work out what I should put in the email to HR

Could you email asking for clarification and include a link from acas?

We enter all our annual holidays onto the system and payroll then add the average holiday pay as a separate payment so it is clear what is being paid.

Cheers daily, does that mean you do pay the average weekly wage that I'm talking about. That's very interesting to hear.

My plan right now is to send a email as you suggest asking for clarification on their policy and quoting relevant working time regulations 1998 and act 1996 passages and with a link to the ACAS page and see what they say.

I need to do a lot more reading first so I know what I'm talking about and that I'm confident in I'm not fighting a pointless battle. Before I send it . but hey I'm on a home holiday this week so o have the time.

Yes we do, even really small amounts but it's all pre calculated by payroll.

I wouldn't go in to heavy handed it's a relative new policy I'd just ask for clarification as you aren't getting very far on site and see what they say.

As flowery said, can you get a few of you on side and approach HR?

Is this a recent thing you've started doing ? As reading through the relevant legislation it seems fairly clear cut and it dates from the 90's . does the recent case law just finalise/clarify this for employers perhaps.

I probably could get others on side (it's Money there owed basically) but part of me is hesitant at this stage as I'd worry about any fallout.