Zero Hour Contracts & Holiday Pay
With the summer holidays on the horizon, it is important that employers are fully aware of workers annual leave entitlements and in particular those who are employed on zero – hour contracts.
Research by the Citizens Advice has recently shown that half of workers on zero-hour contacts wrongly believe that they are not entitled to paid annual leave. This has led to the Citizens Advice calling on the new Government to ensure workers are fully aware of their employment rights and holiday entitlements.
The charity reported further that employers are purposely misleading their employees which has been suggested to exploit employee confusion.
Gillian Guy, who is the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice stated: “Citizens Advice is calling for all employment rights enforcement to be brought into one Fair Work Authority that can tackle employers that break the rules. We also want to see a £50 cap on Employment Tribunal fees, so that people who are unfairly treated aren’t priced out of justice.”
The charity announced that over the last financial year, 185,000 employees sought help from them regarding employment issues. 10,000 cases out of this were connected to holiday pay.
One particular employee that received help from the charity had worked in a care home for over five years, roughly 48 hours a week. His employer had misinformed him by telling him that night workers did not have a right to paid time off. On helping this man, the Citizens Advice calculated that he had missed out on £8,900 worth of holiday pay.
It is important that employers who have workers on zero hour contracts, calculate their holiday pay entitlement on the basis of worked hours. If you have zero hour workers who have not worked any hours, their holiday pay entitlement for that period will be zero.
The law on zero-hour workers and status within an organisation is not straightforward for some employers. However, it has been proved as advantageous when a business requires a pool of staff throughout busy periods.
How can Employment Law Services (ELS) LTD Help?
If you are looking for tailored advice on taking on staff on a casual or zero-hours basis, or would like to ensure the employment contracts you currently have in place are suitable and truly reflect the reality of your employment relationships, our expert team of employment law and HR Specialists are ready to help. We offer employers practical and effective solutions for any HR or employment law matter, aimed at giving you peace of mind so you can focus on running your business.
