Should agency pay me for May Bank holiday

northernsoul

On Monday May 10th i started work with an agency for an engineering company. On May 31st it shut for May day Bank Holiday. On recieving my wage i had not been paid for this Bank Holiday and only recieved 4 days pay.
I will be with the agency for 3 months then hopefully be taken on by the engineering company.
I understand that everybody working full time has an entitlement to 28 days paid leave (20 days hol and 8 days Bank hols). Working nights it can be less days hol i believe.
The way i understand it is for every week i work for the agency i accrue a certain amount of paid holiday.
2 scenario's follow
1) 0.53 days hol accrued per week (28 days / 52)
or
2) 0.38 days hol accrued per week (20 days / 52) + Bank holidays that occur while employed by the agency
As i have worked 3 weeks and acrued either 1.14 or 1.59 days hol i believe i should have been paid.
Do agencies have to pay you for Bank Holidays regardless of how long you have been with them, or do you have to accrue them (As said above, even if answer to this is to accrue them, i should at 3 weeks have accrued enough to be paid for the 1 day)
Will they possibly be paying me all my holiday entitlement for 3 months (28 / 4) which would be 7 days when i leave them? (providing i do not book any holidays)
Would like to know where i stand before i speak to the agency.
Thanks

sexki11en

You have to request holiday pay. Not everyone wants paying for Bank holidays as they'd rather save it up for a 2 week holiday in the summer for example. Plus you have to give written notice for holiday to be paid.

It should be in your terms and conditions that you signed when you joined up with the agency.

And yes, you accrue holiday. If you hadn't accrued enough at the time, you wouldn't have been able to be paid it. You would still have had to accrue it tho.

SK x

Hammyman

There is no right to paid bank holidays. It is 28 days, not 20 days plus 8 bank holidays. Companies that do pay bank holidays either take them out of the 28 day allowance or pay them in addition to but the fact remains that there is no automatic right to paid bank holidays.

northernsoul

Ok thanks. I take it then, that if i have no holiday within 3 months i should be paid for the 7 days hol i have not taken,

SarEl

You shouldn't "take" anything - you need to read your contract with the agency. There are two ways in which agencies work holidays. One if that you accrue holiday as explained above. But not all agencies do this. Some "pay" you your holiday entitlement "as you earn it" - in other words it is included in the sum of money you get every week, and whether you save it for holiday pay or not is then up to you. Provided that the agency "pay your holidays", i.e. give you the holiday pay, either method is acceptable in law. So you need to read the paperwork you have been given and if that doesn't answer your question, ask the ahency how they handle holiday pay. You don't want to swan off on holiday only to discover there is no money because you already spent it!

Savvy_Sue

You do also need to get this sorted because agencies can be a bit 'strict' about how and when you ask for holiday, so if you don't make the request at the right time then being paid for it can become 'interesting'.

northernsoul

Hi SarEl. My pay does not include any holiday pay. It is accrued. Will read the contract when i get it! Savvy Sue . I will be on holiday in August. Both agency and company know about it verbally but will request it pretty soon.
Sorry to go on, but in the 12 weeks ( or 13 weeks) i will be employed by the agency, i will take 4 days hol, so when i leave they will owe me for 3 days hol pay?
I just need to be sure of my hol entitlement. and that i can be confident i should have 7 days hol pay, whether taken or not, if i have to argue with the agency.

getmore4less

You can work out holidays in a number of ways both yours are wrong.

One way to accrue hollidays is at a rate of 12.07% of hours worked.

You use 46.4(52-5.6) weeks to work out on a weekly basis for min stautory holidays.

So for 3 weeks work you are entilted to 3*5.6/46.4 = 1.81 days(less if you did not work 5 days each week).

Premier_2

SarEl wrote: »

You shouldn't "take" anything - you need to read your contract with the agency. There are two ways in which agencies work holidays. One if that you accrue holiday as explained above. But not all agencies do this. Some "pay" you your holiday entitlement "as you earn it" - in other words it is included in the sum of money you get every week, and whether you save it for holiday pay or not is then up to you. Provided that the agency "pay your holidays", i.e. give you the holiday pay, either method is acceptable in law. So you need to read the paperwork you have been given and if that doesn't answer your question, ask the ahency how they handle holiday pay. You don't want to swan off on holiday only to discover there is no money because you already spent it!

It was once popular for agencies (and some employers) to try and claim pay for hours worked included a proportion that was holiday pay. This was often referred to as a "rolled up" rate.

This was deemed unlawful some time ago.

Rolled-up holiday pay

It's unlawful not to pay a worker while they are on holiday and instead include an amount for holiday pay in the hourly rate of pay - something known as 'rolled-up holiday pay'.

You must therefore always pay a worker their normal pay while they are actually taking their leave.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1073792640&type=RESOURCES

This was essentially because it was deemed contrary to the purpose of the working time directive (workers allowed a paid holiday), and if someone didn't take a holiday but worked they would effectively be able to earn more money (so an incentive for workers not to take a holiday)

Kate78

Actually that's not strictly true, rolled up holiday pay can be appropriate in certain circumstances.

Eg. A short term (say a couple of weeks) assignment when no holiday can be taken, but the employer can pay the 12.07% at the end in lieu of the holiday time.

I also have a part time job (2 hours a week teaching) where it would not be appropriate for me to take holiday during term time, so I am paid the hourly rate, then the 12.07% for each hour worked at the end of each term.

In these cases, the hourly rate should be advertised as eg. £10.60 per hour + £1.33 holiday pay NOT simply as £11.93 per hour. This is unlawful.

Premier_2

Kate78 wrote: »

Actually that's not strictly true, rolled up holiday pay can be appropriate in certain circumstances.

Eg. A short term (say a couple of weeks) assignment when no holiday can be taken, but the employer can pay the 12.07% at the end in lieu of the holiday time.

I also have a part time job (2 hours a week teaching) where it would not be appropriate for me to take holiday during term time, so I am paid the hourly rate, then the 12.07% for each hour worked at the end of each term.
...

Neither of those examples are the same a a rolled up holiday rate, which as I posted is unlawful.

In the first example, of course you are entitled to be paid for any accrued holiday not taken at the end of your employment (just like everyone is, irrespective of it being a permanent or short term position)

In the second example, it is usual that those who work part time are entitled to paid holidays at the pro-rata rate.
Working in a school will mean you have to take holidays when the school is closed, not during term time, just like all the teachers do.
It would be unlawful to pay you only for the hours you work (albeit with an incremental holiday pay element added) and not award you paid holidays (at the pro rata rate as you are part time); that is because paying someone rolled up rates are unlawful as per the above businesslink site.