WORKING
TIME REGULATIONS
SECTION
7: PAID ANNUAL LEAVE
- Every worker
– whether part-time or full-time – covered by these
regulations is entitled to four weeks’ paid annual leave.
This includes workers who are subject to the Road Transport
Directive.
- A week’s
leave should allow workers to be away from work for a week.
It should be the same amount of time as the working week: if
a worker does a 5-day week, he or she is entitled to 20 days’
leave; if he or she does a 3-day week, the entitlement is 12
days’ leave.
- The leave
entitlement under the regulations is not additional to bank
holidays. There is no statutory right to take bank holidays
off. Therefore a worker who is not otherwise paid in respect
of bank holidays may take bank holidays as part of his or her
annual leave entitlement in order to receive payment for these
holidays Click here for more information
on Bank Holidays
- Workers
must give the employer notice that they want to take leave.
- Employers
can set the times that workers take their leave, for example
for a Christmas shutdown.
- If a worker’s
employment ends, he or she has a right to be paid for the leave
time due and not taken.
Employers
must check:
- Who is entitled to annual
leave
- How much leave workers
currently receive and whether it is enough
- Whether workers receive
a week's pay for each week of leave.
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More detailed information
Workers
are entitled to four weeks’ paid leave each year.
This entitlement
is not in addition to any annual leave given to a worker under
an employment contract. One is set off against the other, so that
the amount of leave a worker gets is whichever of the two kinds
of leave is longer.
Who is
entitled to paid annual leave?
The entitlement to paid annual leave, including the right to compensation payments for untaken leave when you leave your job, begins on the first day of employment.
However, the employer can optionally use an accrual system whereby during the first year of employment the proportion of the leave which may actually be taken (with the employer's agreement) builds up over the year. The amount of leave which may be taken builds up monthly in advance at the rate of one-twelfth of the annual entitlement each month.
Where this calculation does not result in an exact number of days, the amount of leave which may be taken is rounded up to the next half day. Any rounded-up element is deducted from the leave remaining.
For example:
-
A full-time worker who is in his or her third month of employment would have built up 5 days' leave. (The annual entitlement of 20 days multiplied by 3/12 equals 5 days).
- A part-timer who works three days a week and is still in his or her first month of employment would be able to take one day's leave. The annual entitlement of 12 days (four weeks times three days a week) multiplied by 1/12 equals one day.
- A full-time worker who is in his or her eighth month of employment would have built up 13½ days' leave. The annual entitlement of 20 days multiplied by 8/12 equals 13.33 days, which is rounded up to 13½ days.
Requests to take leave in the first year are subject to the same notice requirements as any other leave: see section below
Giving notice to take leave.
At the end of a period of employment a worker will be able to claim for payment in lieu for any leave outstanding, calculated on a pro rata basis from the first day of the leave year or employment to the last day of employment, irrespective of how long that period may be in the current leave year.
In this instance, leave is not rounded up to the nearest half day,
but is paid on the actual amount due. For example, if a worker had
accrued 2.66 days, then they would be paid for 2.66 days and not
three days.
How ‘leave
years’ work
If you are
a worker, you will be entitled to take paid leave, which will
be based on your ‘leave year’; this will start at a date you agree
with your employer. If you do not have an agreement, the leave
year will start:
- On 1 October
if you started work on or before 1 October 1998. Every leave
year will then start on that date.
- On the
date you started your job if you started work after 1 October
1998. Again, each leave year will then start on that date.
If you start
work part of the way through an existing company leave year, your
leave entitlement will be proportionate to the amount of time
left during that year.
And if you
leave your job part of the way through a leave year, your annual
leave entitlement will be proportionate to the amount of the leave
year that you have worked.
How to
work out holiday pay due to workers who are leaving
The pay due
can be worked out using the formula:
(A
x B) – C
where:
A
is the period of leave the worker is entitled to.
B
is how much of the worker’s leave year has elapsed before they
left their job.
C
is the amount of leave taken by the worker between the start
of the leave year and the date they are leaving.
What is
a week’s leave?
A week’s leave
should allow you to be away from work for a week. So it is the
same as the length of time you work in a normal week.
Giving
notice to take leave
Employers
and workers can agree how and when to give notice of when leave
is to be taken.
In the absence
of an agreement the notice period that a worker must give should
be at least twice the period of the leave to be taken. An employer
may refuse the worker permission to take leave requested within
a period equivalent to the period of the leave. For example, if
a worker wants to take a day’s leave, he or she would have to
give their employer at least two days’ notice. If a worker has
given the employer two days’ notice that they want to take one
day’s leave, the employer can come back within one day to refuse
the leave. This provides employers with flexibility where, for
example, a number of other workers have also applied to take the
same day off.
Calculating
a week's pay
The following
section explains how the amount a worker should be paid for their
leave entitlement is calculated under the regulations.
For workers
paid a fixed wage or salary (fixed hours and pay)
If you are
a worker whose normal working hours do not vary, a week’s pay
is the pay due for the basic hours you are contracted to work.
Pay for overtime hours is not included unless it is guaranteed
overtime, i.e. required by the contract between you and your employer.
For piece
workers or workers on commission (hours constant and pay varies)
If you are
a worker whose pay varies with the amount of work done (such as
with piece work) or when a week’s pay is partly made up of variable
bonuses or commission directly related to that week’s output,
then a week’s pay is your average hourly rate multiplied by your
normal working hours.
To calculate
your hourly rate: divide your weekly pay over the previous 12
weeks by the number of hours you worked during the same period
(the pay and hours of non-compulsory overtime is excluded). Any
week in which you receive no pay is replaced by the week before
the 12 weeks when you were paid, to bring the total to 12.
If you are
on commission or performance-related bonuses, 12/13 of any quarterly
bonus or 12/52 of any annual bonus is included. Only bonuses specifically
related to a week’s work should be included; general ‘profit-sharing’
or other such bonuses are not included.
A week’s
pay is the total eligible pay (excluding voluntary overtime but
including relevant bonuses) over the 12-week period divided by
12.
For shift workers
(hours and pay vary in a set pattern)
If you are
a shift worker and you work a set pattern but the hours you work
and the money you earn each week vary, you can work out your week’s
pay by finding the average number of hours you work each week
and your average hourly rate.
To work out
the average number of hours you work each week, add up all the
hours you have worked over the past 12 weeks and divide them by
12. If you are a piece worker, you can work out your average hourly
rate in the same way; i.e. add up how much you have earned over
the past 12 weeks and divide it by the number of hours you have
worked. You should not include voluntary overtime in either
of these calculations, but you include shift premia.
For workers
who work irregular hours (hours and pay vary)
If you do
not work regular hours - you may be an agency worker who works
different hours every week or a sales representative who gets
paid commission only – you should average your pay out by adding
up all your pay for the past 12 weeks and dividing it by 12. If
you did not earn anything during one week, add in the pay from
the week before the 12th week to bring the total up to 12.
What
to do if you are not receiving your rights as a worker
What
records do employers need to keep?
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