Seeking advice: Casual contract workers and holiday pay

[james20]

Hey there,

 

 

 

For the past 2 years I have worked as a waiter for a large hotel chain. During this time, I have been told that working a casual contract (4 hours over 4 weeks) means that I am not entitled to any holiday pay.

 

 

I have recently found out that this is not the case, and that myself, and many other casual contract workers are entitled to a statutory minimum, which works out to be 12.07% of the hours worked, or calculated using the hours worked from the preceding 12 week period.

 

 

I have spoken informally to the employer about this issue, with both the accounts department and the hotel’s Financial Controller both rejecting the claim that we are entitled to anything more than our contract hours. (The employer has said that our entitlement is nothing, and on other occasions said that it is our contract hours. They can’t make up their mind.)

 

 

I have a meeting with the employer next week, but there are some points that I would like to confirm and clarify beforehand:

 

 

- I have identified that by not paying the casual contract staff holiday pay, the hotel is in breach of the Working time Regulations 1998, resulting from a ‘denial of holiday pay’

 

 

- The hotel is in breach of S. 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, through non-payment of holiday as a consequence being an unlawful deduction of wages.

 

 

I am pretty certain that these two claims are correct, but what I am uncertain about is how to go about addressing the fact that the employer has lied/negligently misled the staff about their rights. I am sure the employer has a duty of care to protect the rights of an employee; this includes the right to wages, but does honesty factor in through some form of breach of duty of care, such as negligent misstatement? We, as employees have relied on a statement made by our employer which has acted to our (financial) detriment.

 

 

Another query for which I cannot find an answer involves the employees at the hotel who are employed on either 10/20/25 hour a week contracts. Their holiday pay is based upon these contracted hours, but in reality the staff work closer to full-time hours. Would this mean that there is a discrepancy between their current holiday pay, and the holiday pay to which they are actually entitled?

 

 

I know this is quite a long read, but the implications are rather far-reaching, especially if the denial of holiday pay spans the entire hotel chain, not just our hotel.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I'm sure you'll have replies here, but I think it might also be worth looking at ACAS's website and maybe ringing the helpline as there are a few of you. I don't think what they're saying is right, but I'm not an employment expert.

 

My best, HB