Thread: Holiday pay problem - temporary worker

Hi,
I was working on an hourly basis for a few months earlier this year. When getting my last payment I expected to get my holiday pay, as I have so far only been paid my salary as stated in my contract, i.e. there has been no holiday pay indicated on my payslip, nor have I received any payment above the basic salary specified in my contract.

But I received none, and the company simply said that my holiday pay was included in my salary. However, no such thing is mentioned in my contract. It no where states that the salary includes holiday pay.

If it isn't mentioned in the contract that salary is inclusive of holiday pay, it can't possibly be assumed to be, can it? I mean, from a legal point of view, I should be entitled holiday pay on top of my basic salary, right?

Feedback from people who have some knowledge on this would be great. If you also have a link or so pointing to official interpretations on this, then it would be even better...

I'm no expert on this but found this link:

European Court of Justice rules on rolled up holiday pay - Holidays must be paid for at the time that they are taken

So does your contract stipulate any holiday allowance? If so, how much allowance should you be getting? The working time regs say 4 weeks but your contract may say more.

Does your payslip give a Breakdown of your pay into salary and holiday pay?

From reading that link I would say that if your pay slip does not show the breakdown and it is not mentioned in your contract that it is included in your salary then it is not transparant and therefore illegal. In addition, if, as you said it states in your contract your rate of salary without mentioning that this includes holiday pay then I believe that this amount can only be counted as basic salary which doesn't include holiday pay, as again this is not transparant.

Thanks a lot for the link, it seems to give me all the info I need.

My contract doesn't mention how much holiday I'm entitled to, it just refers to some Company's Personnel Handbook for a policy on annual leave.

The payslip does not give any Breakdown, it just point out that it is paying me my basic salary.

If you have been paid your salary for the time that you were on holiday, then that's your holiday pay. There is no requirement for it to be shown separately on a payslip.

Originally Posted by patdavies

If you have been paid your salary for the time that you were on holiday, then that's your holiday pay. There is no requirement for it to be shown separately on a payslip.

I have no problem with such a situation... but I never had any holiday. I was simply temping for a few months, until the project I was working on was finished. And now I'm being told I have already been paid for holidays, even though it says nowhere in contract or payslip that holiday pay is included in basic pay.

I would write to them quoting the relevant bits from that link and demanding a pro rata payment of 4 weeks holiday pay for the hours you worked.