High Court rules on inclusion of holidays when calculating a day’s pay for strike deductions

Employers must include annual leave and bank holidays when calculating how much pay to deduct for strike action, the High Court has ruled.

Public sector union Unison brought the test case, Cooper v Isle of Wight College, following a strike in defence of its members’ pension rights in March last year.

The decision means that the Isle of Wight College should have deducted only 1/260th of the annual salary of a striker for the one-day strike, not 1/228th.

The ruling has implications for all employers making deductions from employees’ wages for taking strike action.

Unison had argued that the correct method of calculating one day’s pay was to deduct weekends and other non-working days (but not annual leave or bank holidays). This would have resulted in a deduction of 1/260th of annual salary for one day’s strike.

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Dave Prentis, Unison general secretary, said: “The amount of money may seem small but the principle of the case is much bigger.

“The ruling makes it clear that employers will fall foul of the law if they fail to include annual leave and bank holidays in their calculations.”