Welcome to our latest Coffee Break in which we look at the latest legal and practical developments impacting employers.
UK Supreme Court rules on 'part-year' workers' holiday pay
The Supreme Court published its decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel on 20 July looking at the statutory holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) of Mrs Brazel, a music teacher engaged on a zero-hours contract to provide music lessons during school-term times. Under the WTR, a worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks' of paid annual leave each year (subject to some specific exceptions); however, the question arose as to whether a worker in the position of Mrs Brazel, who worked only some weeks of the year, was entitled to a full 5.6 weeks paid leave or whether this should be pro-rated to reflect the period she actually worked.
The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal that, under the WTR, Mrs Brazel was entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year (albeit that this meant that she, in fact, received proportionately more paid holiday than a colleague who worked on a full-time basis) and that her holiday pay for this period should be calculated in accordance with the formula provided by the WTR as set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996; that is, it should be based on an average week's pay (which the WTR now provide to be based over a 52-week working-week average) times 5.6 weeks. The Supreme Court referred to this as the Calendar Week Method. Importantly, this methodology...
A video shows a man playing music on a speaker and passengers clapping and filming after the attack on an Israel-bound Flydubai flight where a pilot was attacked. False. The video has been online s...