Contract Change

[Thetraitor]

Just after Some advice. Always worked term time only - minimum wage but I love the job and love the people. My boss has now told us that we will now no longer be being paid every month and instead will be paid more the months we are working and nothing in the months we aren’t working so summer holidays we get no pay. They explained this is due to HMRC rules and a risk of fines. Is this right?

anyone know?

Yes. There was an Employment Appeal Tribunal on this subject last year, which impacts on the way that term time contracts / pay is dealt with. I don't know the full details - in fact I think that people are still trying to work out what it means because the result was unexpected. But a number of employers are now either changing contracts, pay schedules, or both. So what you've been told sounds like they are doing this.

You'll find all the statutory information here:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-holiday-entitlement-and-holiday-pay-calculations/holiday-pay-and-entitlement-reforms-from-1-january-2024

But ask your HR dept to explain it not your manager as they may not have understood it fully.

Thanks for the reply. It is so difficult to understand. Unfortunately our manager is a one man band and HR aren’t really involved often other than to advise them

Glad you posted, I'm also term time only and not herd of this .
I guess the only way to budget is to put the extra away each month then use it on the months you have no pay . Would be tricky to start but would even out over the whole year .

I think we’d have all been fine with that if we’d got the full September - August year to budget but they are making the change part way through the year so not a lot of time to save the no money for Easter and summer

When are they implementing the changes?
How are they planning on paying holiday pay ?

They are starting it in April. Holiday pay is being added to normal paid months

I've tried to read through the link , must say it's very confusing. I would ask your boss to re look as there is a section that refers to term time working, my understanding is that it doesn't affect us as we are on a yearly salary. I could very well be wrong as it's very confusing.

Is this more about defining what a part year worker is? Lots of info dated Jan 24 and this might be what payment changes about. The definition of a part year worker has been clarified. I’ve attached an example.

The example of Ian might be relevant to the employer.