Holiday Pay Ruling

[mercenary]

Hot off the presses: paying a supplement in lieu of a holiday entitlement has been ruled illegal in Europe.

See:http://money.guardian.co.uk/worklifebala...45,00.html
It sums up:
A regime of rolled-up holiday pay may lead to situations in which the minimum period of paid annual leave is, in effect, replaced by an allowance in lieu, which the working time directive prohibits in order to ensure that a worker is entitled to actual rest."
A group of workers complained to the Leeds' Employment Tribunal about the fact that their various employers were using the rolled-up holiday pay system instead of giving them pay for specific annual leave. The tribunal passed the case to the EU judges for a ruling under EU law.
Rolled-up holiday pay is often used by employers for workers who have unusual working arrangements. Firms argue it is often difficult to assess what the precise holiday entitlement is for some shift workers or casual employees because there is no "normal" working week.


I know of one archaeological unit that does this, and I'm sure it is not alone. I would now hope that all archaeologists subject to this employment fiddle immediately demand to receive their holiday entitlement. I suspect that the response will be a lowered pay rate, which will be lower than the IFA and BAJR recomended minima.

David, any chance that you can monitor this, now that the grey area has been cleared up?

[kevin wooldridge]

quote:Originally posted by mercenary

Hot off the presses: paying a supplement in lieu of a holiday entitlement has been ruled illegal in Europe.

Well spotted Mercenary. Guess that throws a spanner in the IFA enhanced benefits proposal as well.

[mercenary]

Oh yes. So it does. Back to the drawing board for them. Maybe your ?300 per week dignity wage will have to be adopted. Time for a bit of arm twisting no?

[Reggie]

I worked a 2 week contract last year as a site assistant with a unit and was paid an enhanced hourly rate in lieu of paid leave. I suspect this could be the same unit that Mercenary alludes to above.

The letter I received offering me the job explained the terms in full. Checking against the BAJR pay scales the pay rate, excluding the holiday pay, was within the BAJR "Site Assistant 2" range, which was quite correct for the position I was being offered. The enhancement rate was also correct for the equivilent of 4 weeks paid holiday per year for a 37 hour working week. The letter also pointed out that leave could still be taken but that it would therefore be unpaid as "paid leave" had already been accounted for in the enhanced hourly rate. I didn't feel that it was a 'fiddle' in any way. I thought this quite reasonable for a short contract. For a very short contract like the one I was doing it seemed particularly appropriate to ensure the project was as fully staffed as possible for the duration of the project.

On talking to longer serving members of staff I was told that the system came about as a result of contract diggers at the unit asking for a more manageable way of being paid for leave.

[mercenary]

Posted by Toby

quoteosted - 20/09/2005 : 23:16:05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I work for YAT and have done for some time now.

Just thought I would clear a few points up...


...All contracts make it clear that there is a holiday allowance on top of the normal pay. This was included several years ago at the request of the diggers who did not want to not have to calculate short term contract holiday hours and notice etc. So the lack of holiday pay is because it was requested by diggers.

Toby, now that this is illegal under European law are you going to campaign for proper holiday entitlement?

[Reggie]

It is proper holiday entitlement. In effect you are being paid for your leave in advance but that doesn't prevent people actually having time off. I think the problem actually comes with staff not understanding the contract and managers not administering it properly.

[Real Job]

Paying holiday pay as a percentage on top of a basic wage is bad employment practice (now illegal). The purpose of holiday pay is to enable people to take holidays and to help ensure that people do take holidays for their well being, hence the ruling of the court.
I don't see how it is especially convenient for short term contracts - you can simply take your holiday pay in a lump sum at the end. I believe that an employer can, by law, dictate to some degree when you take holidays, but they definitely cannot withold any acrued holiday pay at the end of your contract.

[mercenary]

quote:I think the problem actually comes with staff not understanding the contract and managers not administering it properly.

How exactly? I have not been unlucky enough to be subject to this.

It looks to be a simple way of paying 8%(the monetary value of holiday entitlement) less than other units while superficially paying comparable rates. But I'm cynical about these things.

I agree with the staff not understanding the contract thing. Otherwise they probably wouldn't accept a salary 8% lower than the going rate.

[Reggie]

OK. So not everyone agrees with the enhanced pay system. I found it OK but if the powers that be have ruled otherwise then of course said units do need to change their practice. As I said, I thought the system worked fine for me but I concede that it is not the way to continue.

I do not believe, however, that it is necessarily the case that certain units are using the enhanced pay system to pay hourly rates below those recommended by IFA / BAJR and would like give more information on my own experience.

BAJRSite Assistant 2 = ?13,458 -?13,737 (min ?258.80 per week) - Basic knowledge of work required, should be able to carry out work with instruction from Supervisor.

When I first worked for the unit I had 3 months digging experience, non of which was gained on commerical contract work. However, I was taken on at the Site Assistant 2 level, not as a trainee.

I was paid ?6.99 an hour for a 37 hour working week, which works out at ?258.63 a week or ?13448.76 pa. Pretty much bang on the lower level of the Site Assistant 2 rate, give or take a tenner a year. On top of this I was paid an additional 0.54 pence per hour in lieu of paid leave, to the equivalent of 1.67 days per month, or 20 days per annum.

[Toby]

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