Holiday Entitlements

niallam

Looking for some help on calculating a holiday entitlement.
A job gives a maximum of 4 working weeks (20 days holidays) per year, the contract states that the normal working week is 39 hours per week.
If you work an average week of 47 hours per week (since January) should holiday pay be based on this as your normal working week?
I know the number of days (20) won't increase but should the hours per holiday day be increased to the average working day?
From what I've googled I've found that -

When calculating holiday entitlement, all time worked qualifies for paid holiday time, including overtime hours worked.

The "working week" itself is not defined in the act and must be construed by reference to the number of hours/days encompassing a work cycle.


Any help welcome.

tatli_lokma

yes all time work qualifies for paid holiday time, but up to a maximum of 20 days per year as defined by the statutory rights. Unless your contract states that you get additional days off, or that all staff are working on 8% of hours worked with no upper limit, then the 20 days applies.

What you should be looking at is time off in lieu or overtime. If you get paid overtime in excess of the 39 hours then this is the compensation for the extra hours and holidays are based on your normal working day. If you get time off in lieu then you would be accruing an average of 8 hours extra per week - so one day a week more or less and this could be taken in addition to statutory holidays.

Your working week is your contracted hours - outside of this is as you say 'overtime'. If you were obliged to work a set number of overtime hours per month, you may be able to argue for the longer week to be paid, but if that is not part of your contract then it is based on your standard contracted hours.