Workers in an employment tribunal appeal have won their case, seeing a groundbreaking ruling for employers and employees nationwide, reports the BBC.
A landmark ruling has taken place pronouncing that those working overtime could be entitled to more holiday pay. This differs from the current practice whereby only basic, contracted pay counts towards a worker’s holiday allowance.
Furthermore, the tribunal concluded that claims for this may be retrospective. This has caused uproar among employers who argue that they may now have to ready themselves for billions of pounds being claimed in compensation. Some have argued that this could cripple many businesses rendering more individuals jobless.
However, the current ruling states that a worker may only backdate a claim by three months in order to limit the damage to employers. In addition, judgments may be appealed and therefore cases could potentially take years to be concluded.
It is unclear whether this ruling will apply to voluntary overtime as well as enforced overtime. ‘Casper Glyn, a barrister specialising in employment law, told the BBC that the ruling effectively meant that: “Normal pay is normal pay and that should be paid when you’re on holiday”. Even though this was not spelt out in the ruling, this referred not just to compulsory overtime but to any overtime that is worked on a regular basis’, the BBC reports.
Unite union have praised the ruling commenting that workers have been treated unjustly with regard to their holiday pay for years . With the ruling being what it is, they have high hopes of this being rectified for the future.
The judgment came as the result of three cases brought before the employment tribunal. These cases revolved around the European Working Time Directive. All of the workers in these cases won and, after the predictable appeals by their respective employers, the tribunal dismissed the appeals altogether and upheld the ruling. This suggests that UK companies have not understood the EU directive correctly and will likely now pay the price for this.
