'Zero Hours Contract' and Holiday Pay Entitlement???

[alberthammond]

Hello and a big thank you to all for bothering to uphold such a resourceful website.

I have recently requested holiday pay from my employer only to be told that I was not entitled to it as I am working under a 'zero hours contract'. Its a food service position and I don't remember signing any contract when I began working for the business but I work full time hours.

Can anyone give me the official line on where I stand as regards my entitlement to 'holiday pay' under such a 'contract'???

Hope you can help,

Mary S

[Ell-enn]

Hi there & welcome to CAG.

To be honest I've never heard of a Zero Hours Contract! However, every employee is entitled to holiday pay - even if they do not have fixed hours or work the same hours every week. Your employer should take an average of your hours over the previous 12 weeks and that will be your holiday pay entitlement.

You should also have been issued with your terms and conditions of employment i.e. hours and rate of pay etc, within 2 months of starting the job.

You might find the following line useful:

Holiday entitlements: taking your holidays : Directgov - Employment

and I would point your employer in that direction as well!!

Please let me know how you progress.

Kind Regards

Ell-enn

PS I have asked for your thread to be moved to the Employment Section

[zootscoot]

Thread moved to employment forum

[alberthammond]

Many many thanks,

I'll let you know what happens.

[Lula]

yes please, I would love know what a zero hours contract is

[Sidewinder]

Zero hours contracts are fairly common. My wife is a Home Care Worker and has one. It basically means that the employer is not obliged to give you work and in turn you are under no obligation to do the jobs requested. It suits her (our) family situation. She actually works around 30 hours per week, but can throw back a particular job if it doesn't fit what she is doing, or can take time off at relatively short notice to cover childcare etc. Different employers use them in different ways - in my wife's case reasonably sensibly, but in the past unscrupulous employers used it as a means by which they only paid for work actually done. For example, a restaurant might employ three staff and not know how busy a particular night was going to be. He would therefore have the three staff 'on call' in a rest room unpaid until it got busy enough to bring them out to serve.

Your employer is absolutely wrong to deny you holiday though. Your rights are exactly the same as everybody else's and you must be permitted paid holiday on the basis of the last 12 weeks' work. Whether an 'employee' or a 'worker' (naturally if you are self employed that is different!), this builds from the first day that you start work. Presumably the person you work for pays you and deducts tax and National Insurance? You need not have a formal Contract, but should be provided with a written statement of particulars within 8 weeks of starting. This should set out the basis on which you are working. Terms of your contract may be 'implied' if not specified in writing, therefore although your contract might not specify the number of hours which you work, it may be customary that you do a certain number each week. Implied terms are every bit as important as written ones in most respects.

Quite how you approach the subject again is another matter. I would ask again and tell your employer that you have taken advice on the subject of holiday as you couldn't understand why you didn't qualify. Ask why specifically he doesn't think that you qualify, and ask for this in writing if needs be. Providing that you have worked sufficiently to calculate an average working week, you should know what you are entitled to.

My wife's company operate on the basis of x hours holiday for every x hours worked, so it is quite easy to keep tabs on.

[green_and_mean]

Some companies include holiday pay in the hourly rate for zero hour contracts but this should be included in your contract if thats the case. I am not sure if its legal but I used to be in that situation with a very large company working for a local council so theres a good chance it would be legal.

[patdavies]

Originally Posted by green_and_mean

Some companies include holiday pay in the hourly rate for zero hour contracts but this should be included in your contract if thats the case. I am not sure if its legal but I used to be in that situation with a very large company working for a local council so theres a good chance it would be legal.

It's been illegal since 2002 (I think that's the right date)

[green_and_mean]

I did leave about then so you are probably correct!

[Sidewinder]

Originally Posted by green_and_mean

Some companies include holiday pay in the hourly rate for zero hour contracts but this should be included in your contract if thats the case. I am not sure if its legal but I used to be in that situation with a very large company working for a local council so theres a good chance it would be legal.

I think that this is considered as 'rolled up pay' which was deemed unlawful in 2006. The rulling determined that holiday pay has to be paid at the time the leave is taken, not aggregated throughout the year.

[advisee]

Originally Posted by Ell-enn

Hi there & welcome to CAG.

To be honest I've never heard of a Zero Hours Contract!

Ellen, its basically a fudge, designed to show that (should a future issue occur) the employer can prove there is no mutuality of obligation. Chances are this is a contract for services rather than a contract of employment (on paper at least).

This is (in my view) a good example of where a tribunal would imply that there is another employment contract, where the commercial reality is that x hours per week are worked.

To Albert - can you check your payslips/documentation, and see whether there is anything in there about whether holiday pay is included with the hourly rate. As others have said, this is illegal now, but many employers still do it (notably agencies).