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+

Case lawHolidays and holiday payOvertime

Holiday pay: voluntary overtime should be included, rules appeal court

by Stephen Simpson 26 Jun 2015
by Stephen Simpson 26 Jun 2015

There is no reason in principle why voluntary overtime should not be included in holiday pay, according to an important judgment published today by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.

Holiday pay: cases on appeal

Cases on appeal Keep track of appeals in important employment cases, including those relating to holiday pay.

In Patterson v Castlereagh Borough Council, a Northern Ireland tribunal rejected a council engineer’s unlawful deductions from wages claim.

Mr Patterson brought the claim on the basis that the calculation of his holiday pay should have included pay for overtime hours that he volunteered to work.

Although his contract of employment did not mention overtime, it was clear that the employer was not obliged to offer overtime, nor was Mr Patterson required to undertake it when it was offered.

Mr Patterson’s circumstances were different from the workers in the key Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) case Bear Scotland Ltd and others v Fulton and others; Hertel (UK) Ltd v Woods and others; Amec Group Ltd v Law and others.

In Bear Scotland, the workers were not guaranteed to receive overtime, but they were required to work overtime when their employers asked them to do so. The EAT said that obligatory non-guaranteed overtime has to be included in holiday pay.

In contrast to the workers in Bear Scotland, Mr Patterson’s overtime was purely voluntary.

Following Bear Scotland, employers were left with the question as to whether the principles set out in that case apply to circumstances in which workers are not required to work overtime when asked by their employer.

The industrial tribunal in Patterson v Castlereagh Borough Council applied Bear Scotland and concluded that, since Mr Patterson’s overtime was “voluntary overtime” and not obligatory “non-guaranteed overtime”, the employer was not required to include the overtime in the calculation of his paid annual leave.

On appeal, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal overturned the tribunal’s decision. It accepted the employer’s concession that there is nothing in principle to prevent purely voluntary overtime from counting towards holiday pay in appropriate circumstances.

However, the employer’s side maintained that each case needs to be decided on its facts, depending on factors such as the regularity and permanence of the overtime arrangement.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal has now issued its written judgment in the case allowing the appeal, in the light of the employer’s concession.

The judgment states that the employer was correct to concede that there is no reason in principle why voluntary overtime should not be included in holiday pay calculations.

However, it goes on to stress that it will be a question of fact for each tribunal to determine whether or not the voluntary overtime includes the necessary features to be included. The overtime must normally be carried out by the worker, and be an “appropriately permanent feature” of the worker’s remuneration to trigger its inclusion in the holiday pay calculation.

As it is a Northern Ireland case, this decision is not binding on courts and tribunals in England, Wales and Scotland. However, it will be cited in holiday pay cases in those jurisdictions and may be persuasive.

The case will be resubmitted to the tribunal to hear further evidence of Mr Patterson’s overtime arrangements.

Continue reading for further analysis of the judgment and the possible implications for employers on XpertHR…

Avatar
Stephen Simpson

Stephen Simpson is a principal employment law editor at XpertHR. His areas of responsibility include the policies and documents and law reports. After obtaining a law degree and training to be a solicitor, he moved into publishing, initially with Butterworths. He joined XpertHR in its early days in 2001.

previous post
HR transformation: putting the “expert” in centres of expertise
next post
Case study: protection of healthcare staff from surgical smoke in operating theatres

You may also like

Top 10 HR questions July 2022: heatwaves and...

1 Aug 2022

Harpur Trust v Brazel: Your holiday pay questions...

27 Jul 2022

Travel disruption: employers’ questions answered

26 Jul 2022

Employees struggle to take time off over summer

22 Jul 2022

Supreme Court: Holiday pay for part-year staff should...

20 Jul 2022

Maya Forstater wins belief discrimination case over gender-critical...

6 Jul 2022

Christian doctor loses transgender pronoun case, but beliefs...

29 Jun 2022

Long Covid: what tribunal’s disability ruling means for...

23 Jun 2022

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

5 Jun 2022

Top 10 HR questions May 2022: Bank holidays

1 Jun 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...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 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 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+