With summer fast approaching, your staff will be booking their summer holidays and wanting to receive their holiday pay, so here are the basic facts for statutory holiday entitlement.
* Workers have the right to get paid leave; accrue holiday entitlement during sick, maternity or paternity leave; choose to take holiday at the same time as sick leave
* Most workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday. Employers can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave.
* 5 day week workers must receive 28 days paid holiday. (5 days multiplied by 5.6 weeks)
* Part time workers are also entitled to 5.60 weeks paid holiday, but this may equate to less days per year if they work less days; working a 3 day week would equate to 16.8 days for example.
* Employees working irregular hours will need to calculate their holiday entitlement for irregular hours here
* Annual leave begins to accrue as soon as an employee starts their job. If a worker starts or leaves part way through a holiday year, their entitlement must be pro rated accordingly. Use the
holiday calculator here
* Employees who get 28 days annual leave can carry over up to a maximum of 8 days into the next holiday year.
* Shift workers or casual workers’ holiday pay should be calculated on an average of their last 12 weeks pay.
* Employers can choose to offer more leave than the legal minimum. If they do, they don’t have to apply all the rules that apply to statutory leave to the extra leave.
