Millions of Workers to Get Extra Holiday Pay

Millions of workers to get extra holiday pay after landmark ruling forces firms to take into account regular overtime shifts

Millions of workers are in line for extra holiday pay after a recent landmark tribunal ruled that regular overtime shifts should be taken into account when calculating people’s ‘normal’ wage.

This could begin a huge number of payouts to short-changed workers, leading to potentially damaging consequences to many UK companies

Many however have warned it could see wages cut and jobs lost. Workers will now be able to make backdated claims for lost holiday pay, but only if it is less than three months since their last break.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal in London ruled that the UK had been misinterpreting European Union law for the past 16 years by insisting that holiday pay should not have to take into account regular overtime. Almost 20% of workers are believed to work regular paid overtime. This equates to around five million people eligable for extra holiday pay.

The European Working Time Directive, brought into UK law in 1998, says workers should receive their ‘normal’ pay when they go on annual leave