Anyone in HR? Can anyone help me work out holiday entitlement?

[Dachshelp]

Long story but work in a very small company. Book keeper has gone and I’m replacing them. The only trouble is I don’t know how to work out my own holiday entitlement... zero hour contract. Book keeper said they use the
Gov calculator which I have used before in my previous job... however I don’t work the same hours each week or each month. What am I choosing out of the options on the gov calculator?? I’m not leaving.. haven’t just started.... any ideas please? Book keeper won’t help me....

It depends on what the standard full time entitlement is. So do full timers get 20 days plus bank holidays? Or 25 + 8 or something else?

There aren’t any other employees... just me!

Then just calculate 12.7% of hours worked. That will give you the pro rata of 25 days plus 8 bank hols.

It's legally now more complicated than that but I'm guessing you don't do overtime or get enhanced rates of pay.

If you use the government calculator, for the start and finish dates you just use the start and end dates of the company holiday year which is usually 1st jan to 31 Dec

We don’t actually have company holiday calendar! I am the only one that is employed and gets any kind of holiday pay! I have accumulated quite a bit of holiday as due to covid haven’t been anywhere but did take some holiday pay last year and over Xmas. How do I work it out monthly? Work out 12.7% of the hours I worked at the end of each month?

I am not HR but I have previously had part time casual zero-hours contract employeees.

If there aren't any full time employees then there isn't a single correct answer but you do need to choose figures for how many hours per week an FT employee would work (tends to be c37 hrs public sector, c40hrs private sector) and how many days AL a FT employee would get (legal minimum is 28 days including bank holidays but lots of employers go a bit more generous than that.

If you choose 40hpw ft hours and 30 days AL in a year, then a full time worker would work for 1848 hours and have paid 240 hours off. 240/1848=0.1299 but obviously you would get a different number (around this value plus or minus a little) depending on the above two figures you choose.

Using whatever number you end up with for that, it means that for a full time worker each hour of work they do gets them 0.1299 hours of paid annual leave so when doing payroll each month for a part time casual zero hours employee you pay them as if they had worked 1.1299 hours for each hour they actually worked. So they are taking their annual leave piecemeal as they go. This is fine so long as they don't actually end up working every day - there need to be enough clear days when their services aren't needed that they are actually getting time off.

It is much simpler than suggested by the previous post. You don't need to choose how many hours per week a full-time employee would work. You do, however, need to know how much holiday entitlement a full-time employee would have. If they would get 28 days (20 days plus bank holidays), you should calculate your holiday entitlement as 10.77% of the hours you have worked. If you need to calculate it monthly, it is 10.77% of the hours you have worked that month. If a full-time employee would get 33 days (25 days plus bank holidays), your entitlement is 12.7% of the hours you have worked.

What does your contract say about holiday?

Assuming it says you get the statutory minimum, which would be 28 days if you were a standard full timer, the way you can work it out if your hours vary is by calculating 12.07% of the hours you actually work (not 12.7% or 10.77%).

Flowery is, of course, right. 12.07% is the correct figure. Having a senior moment.

I agree I missed off the 0, should be 12.07% however strictly speaking since a May 2019 court case you shouldn't be using 12.07% you should be using the average hours from the previous 12 weeks.

But you first need to agree with your boss how much holiday entitlement he would give you if you were full time, so minimum of 20 days or more ?

@happinessischocolate

I agree I missed off the 0, should be 12.07% however strictly speaking since a May 2019 court case you shouldn't be using 12.07% you should be using the average hours from the previous 12 weeks.

But you first need to agree with your boss how much holiday entitlement he would give you if you were full time, so minimum of 20 days or more ?

12 weeks is now out of date. Holiday pay needs to be based on an average of the last 52 weeks. In practice, for someone who works year-round, using 12.07% will come out in the wash with the right result and is much more user-friendly.

I’m on a zero hour contract. I don’t have a physical contract. My hours change every day so every week.... the old book keeper told me it was something to do with 12 weeks average but won’t get back to me to help me work it out!

So pay run is 28th jan, so do I work out hours worked from 28th dec to 27th jan, add them up and then work out the 12.07%?

Pay run is irrelevant. I would just keep a running total in a spreadsheet, recording the hours you work each week, then with a formula automatically calculating 12.07% so you then have your holiday entitlement. Record the days you book holiday off and how many hours, and you’ll have a balance remaining.

Why haven’t you got a contract? You should have at least a statement of written particulars of employment by the day you start work.

No I don’t have a contract as I’m zero hours and I had a choice of that or being self employed which I didn’t want. I have an email (I was told my the book keeper that is sufficient) stating my pay but nothing regarding holiday. My boss is very poor with this sort of thing, he always relied on the (self employed) book keeper as before me he never had to have anything to do with this. I know it will just be the legal minimum though. Any idea what formula I would need in the Column to work it out? my maths is not the best. I know, not selling myself am I! I’m very competent in my job I promise but I have never done pay roll!

As I said, you’re entitled to at least a statement of particulars of employment from day one. The fact you happen to be on zero hours doesn’t affect that.

If your excel skills are such that a formula for calculating a percentage isn’t straightforward for you it’s probably best you just calculate it manually tbh. 12.07% of the hours you worked is how much holiday you accrue.

When you’re doing your time recording each month, you’ll get paid for hours actually worked and any hours you take off.

Take off as holiday, that should be.