Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Zero hoursLatest NewsHolidays and holiday payEmployment contracts

Harpur Trust v Brazel: Government launches holiday pay consultation

by Jo Faragher 13 Jan 2023
by Jo Faragher 13 Jan 2023 The government wants to clarify how holiday pay is calculated for part-year workers such as teaching assistants
Photo: Shutterstock (posed by models)
The government wants to clarify how holiday pay is calculated for part-year workers such as teaching assistants
Photo: Shutterstock (posed by models)

The government has opened a consultation to address the complexity around holiday pay after last year’s Harpur Trust v Brazel ruling.

In July, the Supreme Court confirmed that part-year workers should receive 5.6 weeks’ statutory holiday pay.

This meant that any worker with a continuing contract throughout the year, but who only works for certain periods such as term time, must have their holiday pay calculated in the same way as employees who work the full year, rather than pro-rated.

The consultation opened yesterday (12 January) and will close on 9 March 2023.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the intention of the consultation was “to ensure that their holiday pay and entitlement is directly proportionate to the time they spend working”.

Holiday pay

Supreme Court: Holiday pay for part-year staff should not be pro-rated 

Pimlico Plumbers holiday pay ruling: four steps for employers 

Does an employer have to pay holiday pay to its casual workers?

The consultation proposes introducing a 52-week holiday entitlement reference period, which would bring calculations in line with entitlements received by part-time workers who work the same number of hours across the year.

This period would include weeks in which workers did not work, such as teaching assistants who only work during term time.

It said that including unworked weeks would create an incentive for employers to give employees only a small number of hours a week, rather than none at all.

It also plans to simplify how entitlement is calculated, legalising the method whereby employers work out 12.07% of total hours worked across working and non-working weeks. Employers are asked how they currently calculate entitlement and whether implementing the suggested methods would work.

The original case centred on Ms Brazel, a visiting music teacher at Harpur Trust who was engaged on a zero-hours contract and worked during term time. She was only paid for the hours she taught, which varied week to week.

The number of hours she worked determined the amount of holiday she received, as the Trust calculated this by pro-rating the 5.6 weeks’ entitlement. She brought a claim, claiming the Trust’s approach meant she received less than she was entitled to.

The Court of Appeal and subsequently Supreme Court decided in her favour, ruling that because she was on a contract for the whole year she should be entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid leave.

Employers must now adhere to this ruling, but the decision caused some confusion as to how they should deal with casual staff working part of the year and whether there would be entitlement to back pay.

Kate Palmer, HR advice and consultancy director at Peninsula, said the launch of the consultation showed that the government was acknowledging the “unintended anomalies” raised by the decision.

“The fact that the consultation period is only open for eight weeks suggests they are putting a high priority on resolving the issue quickly and introducing amendments,” she said.

“Effectively this could see part-year workers treated comparably to part-time workers in their annual leave entitlement.

“Under current laws, part-year workers can receive considerably more leave and pay than that of a part-time worker despite working the same number of hours in total over the course of a year.

“Any changes to current legislation will be particularly important for those in the education sector who commonly use term-time contracts. However, it could also pose a new HR headache for any employer who has zero-hours, variable-hours, or agency staff.

“Changing the law can be a lengthy process, but employers should continue to calculate and provide leave in line with the ruling in the Harpur Trust v Brazel case until we know the outcome of this consultation.”

Reward, compensation and benefits opportunities


Browse all comp and benefits jobs

Jo Faragher
Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. Jo is also the author of 'Good Work, Great Technology', published in 2022 by Clink Street Publishing, charting the relationship between effective workplace technology and productive and happy employees. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
DHL driver unfairly dismissed after altercation in van
next post
Employee monitoring software spots ‘time theft’ in unfair dismissal claim

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

EE offers days off in exchange for bank...

1 Feb 2023

Top 10 HR Questions January 2023: Flexible working...

1 Feb 2023

Top 10 HR questions December 2022: unfair dismissal...

5 Jan 2023

Travel disruption: employers’ questions answered

3 Jan 2023

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

23 Dec 2022

Supreme Court to hear historical holiday underpayments case

13 Dec 2022

Top 10 HR questions October 2022: disciplinary witness...

1 Nov 2022

What will the retained EU law bill mean...

28 Sep 2022

Truss considering overhaul of working time rules

5 Sep 2022

Top 10 HR questions August 2022: holiday pay...

1 Sep 2022

  • The Workplace Today Guide: Why it pays to support your staff’s financial health PROMOTED | The cost of living crisis has hit...Read more
  • abrdn pensions master trust: an enhanced member experience PROMOTED | For most people, their pension will be the largest source of income in retirement...Read more
  • How can HR equip leaders to support a wounded workforce? PROMOTED | The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released new guidelines for employers...Read more
  • How HR manages absence and hybrid working (survey) WEBINAR | HR professionals are slowly realising...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+