Holiday pay (average of previous 12 weeks)?

shellsuit

Is this how holiday pay is worked out for all employees?

My husband is a lift engineer. They are contracted to work 8-5, but of course they do a lot of over time as and when. He normally works 50-60 hours on a quiet week.

He is on call out rotas for both commercial lifts and stairlifts, 1 is 1 in 4 and the other is 1 in 6.

When he takes a weeks holiday, he is only ever paid a flat 40 hour week at his basic rate.

His holiday pay has never been worked out using the last 12 weeks wage and I've been reading that it should be.

Is this right?

(I did read that if for example he worked 60 hours one week and 20 of those hours were double time, that is not what the holiday pay should be worked out on, but 60 hours at his normal hourly rate, which is fair enough)




I used to work in a poxy little shop and even there, they would work out my holiday pay on the previous 12 weeks.

McKneff

Ive never worked anywhere where just this happens, its always been a basic 39/40 week that is paid for holidays.

Is there anything in his contract about holiday pay, if not then i think holiday pay would be the statutory pay, which is a basic normal week.

paddedjohn

Holiday pay is paid on the contracted hours so 40 hrs pay is correct if that is what he does.

shellsuit

Neither of you have heard of it being worked out on the previous 12 weeks hours/earnings then?

McKneff, did you work a lot of overtime or just the hours in your contract?


I was contracted to work 16 hours. I worked over most weeks, so my holiday pay was calculated using an average of the previous 12 weeks.


ETA : Have a look at acas, businesslink and directgov sites to see that is what is said about working it out.

KiKi

If your pay is inconsistent from week to week due to your working a different number of days week in week out, yes, holiday pay may be calculated based on the previous 12 weeks' pay. This is quite common in non-standard (ie, non 5-day a week, irregular hours) jobs.

Where no money has been earned in a week, you keep going back until you can add up 12 weeks' worth of pay. Ie, if there was a week in the 12 weeks where no money was earned, you go back to the 13th week.

HTH
KiKi

McKneff

Not me in particular but I work in the construction industry and the men are contracted to a 39 hour week although they work a lot of overtime during the summer, but when holidays come round they are paid their contracted 39 hours.

shellsuit

KiKi wrote: »

If your pay is inconsistent from week to week due to your working a different number of days week in week out, yes, holiday pay may be calculated based on the previous 12 weeks' pay. This is quite common in non-standard (ie, non 5-day a week, irregular hours) jobs.

Where no money has been earned in a week, you keep going back until you can add up 12 weeks' worth of pay. Ie, if there was a week in the 12 weeks where no money was earned, you go back to the 13th week.

HTH
KiKi

When you say it maybe calculated in that way, is that upto the company or is it the law?

KiKi

shellsuit wrote: »

When you say it maybe calculated in that way, is that upto the company or is it the law?

Depends on the scenario. If your OH is on an contracted 8-5 with additional overtime and no other bonuses etc, then it depends whether or not his contract allows for it.

If his contract says that overtime will be used to calculate holiday pay, then yes. If not, then no, he has no statutory right to it. I suspect his employer's probably in the right on this one.

This page explains it for you: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Pay/DG_175994

HTH
KiKi

shellsuit

KiKi wrote: »

Depends on the scenario. If your OH is on an contracted 8-5 with additional overtime and no other bonuses etc, then it depends whether or not his contract allows for it.

If his contract says that overtime will be used to calculate holiday pay, then yes. If not, then no, he has no statutory right to it. I suspect his employer's probably in the right on this one.

This page explains it for you: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Pay/DG_175994

HTH
KiKi

I've already read that info on the link thanks

His contract just says holiday pay will be paid at a basic rate and does not include any bonus, commision or overtime.

Reading what I've read, I took that to mean that although it's not to be paid at overtime rate, it still should be paid for the average previous 12 weeks hours, if that makes sense?

Oh well, looks like they can get away with it!

KiKi

shellsuit wrote: »

I've already read that info on the link thanks

His contract just says holiday pay will be paid at a basic rate and does not include any bonus, commision or overtime.

Reading what I've read, I took that to mean that although it's not to be paid at overtime rate, it still should be paid for the average previous 12 weeks hours, if that makes sense?

Oh well, looks like they can get away with it!

No, it's not about his overtime *pay*, it's about the fact that his overtime *hours* can't be taken into account. So his holiday pay is based solely on his contracted hours - whatever that rate is.

Does that make sense?! It's very legal, and very standard!

Sorry if I'm not making sense, I'm very tired!
KiKi

ultrarunner

I suspect there's a little confusion between the two methods of calculating

A weeks pay = basic salary / 52

Normal pay = all earnings from a given 12 week period / 12 i.e. can include overtime, on-calls, bonus etc as well as basic salary

Normal pay would generally be used to calculate holiday pay for casual workers who work as and when required, and not regular salaried workers, although the contract of employment should specify.