The Supreme Court ruled that employees who only work for part of the year (e.g., term-time & zero-hours workers), should not have their holiday pay or holiday entitlement pro-rated and instead should receive the same entitlement as all year round workers.
This ruling affects the calculation of annual leave and holiday pay entitlements under certain types of contracts.
Download our fact sheet for more information on The Harpur Trust v Brazel case, important changes to holiday pay and calculation, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Harpur Trust v Brazel update – 13 January 2023
The government has issued a consultation paper to address the issues arising from the Supreme Court’s judgment last year in Harpur Trust v Brazel.
As a result of Harpur Trust, there have been changes to how part-year workers' annual leave is calculated, which is creating a disparity in leave allocation. Approximately 37% of these are workers in the education sector.
The government is keen to address this inconsistency to ensure that holiday pay and entitlement received by workers are proportionate to the time they spend working. The proposal is to replace the 52-week reference period when weeks in which no remuneration is earned are ignored, with a 52-week reference period which includes weeks with no remuneration.
The government wants to ensure that any changes it considers do not have any adverse impacts on other parts of the legislation. Its impact assessment calculated that this change will save businesses £113m per annum.
As a result of this consultation, we are advising clients not to change the way they currently calculate casual staff pay until we have clear guidance after the consultation period.
Have your say before 9 March 2023 - https://bit.ly/3kubnDv