Underpaid holiday zero hours

Zoebolt1

This is my first post so apologies if I'm in the wrong place. I began work on October 12th 2015. The job is in a university and there are hours of work there from October-may. I am employed on a zero hours contract but work 7-2.30 every day with 30 minutes unpaid break. We have no hours of work when the university is closed which is 3 weeks in December and 2 weeks in April. Up until recently I had no idea what sort of holiday I was entitled to and in January 2016 after working 283 hours I was paid 19 hours holiday pay. I then worked a further 343 and was paid 25 hours holiday in April 2016. I then worked until the end of May and stopped work as there was none available and I went back to work at the end of September 2016. I am now due to be paid holiday again in my February 1st payslip and I have worked 499 so far since I was last paid holiday. After looking online to see how much holiday I should get I feel as though my holiday previously was underpaid and believe it may happen again. And if it was underpaid previously can I still claim it back. Thanks in advance for any responses

Masomnia

Zoebolt1 wrote: »

This is my first post so apologies if I'm in the wrong place. I began work on October 12th 2015. The job is in a university and there are hours of work there from October-may. I am employed on a zero hours contract but work 7-2.30 every day with 30 minutes unpaid break. We have no hours of work when the university is closed which is 3 weeks in December and 2 weeks in April. Up until recently I had no idea what sort of holiday I was entitled to and in January 2016 after working 283 hours I was paid 19 hours holiday pay. I then worked a further 343 and was paid 25 hours holiday in April 2016. I then worked until the end of May and stopped work as there was none available and I went back to work at the end of September 2016. I am now due to be paid holiday again in my February 1st payslip and I have worked 499 so far since I was last paid holiday. After looking online to see how much holiday I should get I feel as though my holiday previously was underpaid and believe it may happen again. And if it was underpaid previously can I still claim it back. Thanks in advance for any responses

Sounds low to me, but this isn't really my field. Is it explained anywhere how it is calculated? ETA, to be clear, I mean explained by your employer how they calculate it.

Zoebolt1

I think holiday pay should be 12.07% of hours worked which would mean so far I would have been underpaid about 30 hours...just unsure if this properly applies as my contract is zero hours, even though I do the same hours every day. And unsure if I can claim it back?

Zoebolt1

My employer has never told me how they calculate it, I got the 12.07% figure from google. Would it be in my employment contract?

glentoran99

when I was a casual worker it was an average of the previous 8 weeks pay,


When I was an agency work it was 1.5 days per month

davomcdave

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

Calculating average hourly rate
To calculate average hourly rate, only the hours worked and how much was paid for them should be counted. Take the average rate over the last 12 weeks. If no pay was paid in any week, count back a further week, so that the rate is based on 12 weeks in which pay was paid.

Rolled-up holiday pay
Holiday pay should be paid for the time when annual leave is taken. An employer cannot include an amount for holiday pay in the hourly rate (known as ‘rolled-up holiday pay’). If a current contract still includes rolled-up pay, it needs to be re-negotiated.

So to clarify, you should accrue a week of paid holiday after working 12 weeks. That holiday pay will be paid at the average of the last 12 weeks you worked counting backwards. If you're working regular hours and not really taking time off it sounds that the error may well be that the uni is including the uni holidays when you don't work in the average when calculating your pay. Instead they should disregard the weeks you aren't working and go back further weeks to make the average.

If you are working the same hours every week that you work and there are no other weird factors like working some partial weeks at the start and end of holidays then you should get the same holiday pay each time.

I'd start off by going to payroll and asking how they are calculating the holiday pay as it sounds to me like a genuine error. If you prefer then PM me with your hours, dates and pay periods and I'll work out the averages for you and we can see if the uni is at least in the right ballpark for your holiday pay.

Zoebolt1

I have pm'd you but didn't add that I worked from Monday 12th October 2015-December 18th 2015, Monday-Friday 7-2.30. I then had 3 weeks off as the university was closed for Christmas and returned on 11th January 2016. Unable to pm you again as it says as a new member I must wait 60 minutes!

getmore4less

davomcdave wrote: »

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



So to clarify, you should accrue a week of paid holiday after working 12 weeks. That holiday pay will be paid at the average of the last 12 weeks you worked counting backwards. If you're working regular hours and not really taking time off it sounds that the error may well be that the uni is including the uni holidays when you don't work in the average when calculating your pay. Instead they should disregard the weeks you aren't working and go back further weeks to make the average.

If you are working the same hours every week that you work and there are no other weird factors like working some partial weeks at the start and end of holidays then you should get the same holiday pay each time.

I'd start off by going to payroll and asking how they are calculating the holiday pay as it sounds to me like a genuine error. If you prefer then PM me with your hours, dates and pay periods and I'll work out the averages for you and we can see if the uni is at least in the right ballpark for your holiday pay.

that's NOT how it works

the 12 week average is to find the hourly rate.

holiday accrual is different.

12 weeks work(same hours each week same hourly rate) would accrue 1.45 weeks pay.

davomcdave

@OP - I've PM'd you with my calcs. I think you should have had just under 35 hours holiday pay which seems to make sense as you work a 35 hour week! A week's holiday pay should be about the same as a week's pay unless I'm missing something.

@getmore4less - Where did you get your numbers from? They don't agree with the UK Government website and seem to imply 6.25 weeks holiday a year (1.45/12*52). Perhaps your employer is unusually generous in which case congratulations

Savvy_Sue

davomcdave wrote: »

@getmore4less - Where did you get your numbers from? They don't agree with the UK Government website and seem to imply 6.25 weeks holiday a year (1.45/12*52). Perhaps your employer is unusually generous in which case congratulations

When I worked for a university, the leave entitlement was quite generous. It's possible that they have become less generous since then, or that those on zero hours contracts have less generous terms. The 12.07% is the minimum for holiday pay.

davomcdave

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

When I worked for a university, the leave entitlement was quite generous. It's possible that they have become less generous since then, or that those on zero hours contracts have less generous terms. The 12.07% is the minimum for holiday pay.

I suspect the 12.07% is the minimum for permanent employees rather than casuals as it seems like 48 & a little bit weeks (work weeks in a year) divided by 4 (holiday weeks in a year).

Per my link above it looks like the calculation has changed for casuals to an average of the last 12 weeks in which they worked some hours. I believe that's a minimum and an employer can pay more than that if it wants to, in effect, give more holiday to casuals.