Hours of work and Holiday Pay

[Sallycinammonbangsthedruminthe]

HI Everyone
I have a question I hope one of you could answer for me please.My husband works for an agency but has been on permenant placement with a company for nearly 5 years.He works 4 on 4 off 12 hrs a time varying between days and nights.When he applies for holiday leave however he is only paid a daily rate of 8 hrs.Why would this be when he works a 12 hr shift normally? Can anyone explain this to me please as it just seems odd? It feels like they are getting away with not paying for 4 hrs a day to me but I might be wrong..Can anyone advise please? Thank You

In short - yes, they have to include all the time worked in the holiday pay calculation. However you might check the payslips and see if they have been paying those 4 hours as overtime and had paid it including holiday? He would have to ask agency's representative and/or accountant.

www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/holiday-pay-the-basics

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

worksmart.org.uk/work-rights/hours-and-holidays/holidays/i-work-lot-overtime-should-my-holiday-pay-reflect-overtime

Thank you for the response. They are however insisting that although he is contracted to 12 hrs a shift they do only pay for 8 hrs regarding holiday days accrued. It seems so unfair.He doesnt do overtime the standard shift is 12 hrs.

Does he get about 29 days holiday per year? If so, I think that's right. It's better if it's worked out in hours (so about 235 hours) but lots of companies still base it on 8 hour days.

Holiday pay should be accrued for all the time spent working.

Payment for holidays should be made at the rate of a ‘week’s pay’ for each week of holiday taken under the regulations. Where the worker has normal working hours (hours and pay does not vary week to week) then payment for holidays should be the same rate as worker’s normal pay and calculated on the basis of the worker’s normal hours of work.The general principle is that a worker should receive the same remuneration while they are on holiday as they would if they were at work. Taken from smallbusiness.co.uk/holiday-leave-and-pay-the-law-2123133/

Your husband can phone HMRC helpline and ask for advice. Alternatively ask for help from Citizen's Advice.

All written communication of them saying they only will pay holiday pay for 2/3 of the time worked should be kept as evidence. Additionally, he will need all the payslips saying how many hours he worked and how much in holiday pay he has received.

Before you proceed please use this calculator to double check

www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

You can calculate the entitlement by hours

www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

Unsure..he accrues holiday entitlement so for example and I cant be specific as I dont really know but say he gets 1.5 days a month holiday entitlement which runs from october to october so that would be his allowance for the year..which is made up of 4 x 12 hr shifts per week ..then if he took a weeks holiday he would be paid 7 days holiday leave at 8 hrs a day. It might be me missing something but I amjust not getting it! My thinking is if you work 12 hrs a day as standard then you should be paid the holiday entitlement at a rate of 12 hrs a day?? still no wiser!Ihave hit a mentalblock with this query!

Did you do the calculator thingy?

If he takes 28/29 holiday days then by daily calculation of 8 hours a day it seems to correct. Like Lougle said.

Thank you all for the replies. I checked as best I could with the limited information I have.It would have been better had my husband been here to help with specifics but he is working today. I have however just rung the Acas helpline and they said based on what I could tell them that he should be paid for the 12 hrs.Saying that though without him here to answer specific questions it may not be the accurate. Thank you for all your guidanceWill sit down with him tonight and go through his paperwork and contract and see if we can tally it all together. Your advice has been brilliant so thank you all for taking the time to direct,advise and help,it has been really appreciated and really kind of you all .Thank you again.

www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/calculating-holiday-entitlement-atypical-workers

*Shift workers
It is sometimes easier to calculate holiday entitlement as shifts.

So if a member of staff works four 12-hour shifts followed by four days off, the average working week is 3.5 12-hour shifts. So 5.6 weeks' holiday is 5.6 x 3.5 = 19.6 12-hour shifts.

For other shift patterns, it may be easiest to calculate according to the established repeating pattern*

So it is 235 hours of holiday pay entitlement that your husband gets a year divided by 29 days of holiday comes to 8 hours per day paid while on holiday. Their calculation is correct.

I originally assumed from your posts that company only accrued for the 8 hours a day and left 4 unaccounted for.

No, thank you :) It is interesting topic (I have never dealt with shift worker pay yet). I hope I have not confused you even further.

Basically you need:

• whole year's worth of payslips; *contract, where it states holiday pay entitlement (in days) - say 18 days times 12 hours *calculate how many holidays he actually takes out - say 27 days times 8 hours

The last two points should match.

@HappyBuyer...your guidance has ben invaluable thank you