The Supreme Court has published its judgement on Harpur Trust v Brazel, which has significant implications for the tourism and hospitality industry.

The Supreme Court ruling essentially agreed with the previous Court of Appeal’s view.  Specifically, they said: “In short, the amount of leave to which a part-year worker under a permanent contract is entitled is not required by EU law to be, and under domestic law is not, prorated to that of a full-time worker.”

What does this mean for holiday calculations?

This means now that the use of 12.07% (derived from the proportion of statutory leave compared to the total working weeks of the year i.e. 5.6 weeks’ statutory leave in a 52 week year (52 – 5.6 = 46.4 working weeks of the year; 5.6/46.4 = 12.07%) of a worker’s hours should not be utilised, as this can leave some worse off.  

Instead, all workers should have their holiday pay calculated based on their average earnings over the previous 52 working weeks, and all workers will get 5.6 weeks leave.

What does this not mean?

To clarify, this does not change the position for part-time workers, just part-year workers. Part-time workers who work a full 52 weeks of the year but for less hours or days than their full-time colleagues, can continue to have their holiday calculated pro-rata. It also does not change the position for fixed term employees, whose holiday can continue to be calculated pro-rata for the duration of the contract.

Read the Supreme Court judgement here and further interpretation from RSM UK here.