The Government is holding a consultation on proposals that would effectively overturn the 2022 Harpur Trust V Brazel ruling, which stated that holiday entitlement for part-year workers should not be pro-rated.

The Harpur Trust V Brazel ruling by the Supreme Court last year declared that employees who work for part of the year, such as term-time workers, are entitled to the same holiday pay as their colleagues who work all year.

Prior to this ruling, holiday pay for part-year workers was widely calculated by the 12.07% ‘percentage method’ – which allocated holiday pay based on how many hours had been worked. 

As a result of the Supreme Court’s judgment, part-year workers are now entitled to a larger holiday entitlement than part-time workers who work the same total number of hours across the year.

The proposals

The proposal now being consulted on would introduce a holiday entitlement reference period for part-year and irregular hours workers – ensuring that their holiday pay and entitlement is directly proportionate to the time they spend working. 

This would involve calculating hours worked in the previous 52 weeks and multiplying them by 12.07% to find a part-year workers annual statutory entitlement in hours. 

The launch of this consultation shows The Government has recognised that the way the law is written has created unintended anomalies which need to be rectified. Currently, as a result of the Harpur Trust V Brazel ruling, part-year workers can receive significantly more annual leave than that of a part-time worker – despite working the same number of hours over the course of a year.

Find out more about these proposals or submit a response to The Government’s consultation by clicking here. You have until March 9th to submit a response.

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