Holiday For Part-year Workers Cannot Be Proportionately Reduced To Reflect Non-working Weeks

The Supreme Court has upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal and EAT in Brazel v The Harper Trust that employers must calculate paid holiday entitlement for part-year (eg term-time only) workers on permanent contracts without pro-rating the full-time entitlement to reflect weeks not worked. The Working Time Regulations (WTR) do not permit employers to cap entitlement at 12.07% of annualised hours (as previously suggested in Acas guidance), even though this may mean part-year workers get proportionately more paid holiday than full-time and part-time full-year workers. Alternative methods of calculation suggested by the employer as compliant with the EU Directive implemented by the WTR were rejected as being contrary to the express wording of the WTR; EU law does not prevent the WTR making more generous provision.