Am I being penalised for extra leap year day in redundancy calculation?

[Guest]

I have received notice of redundancy.* My 8-week notice period takes me to final day of employment on 29 February 2020.* However, I started my employment on 1/March/2011 and HR have calculated this as being 8years and 11months of service, so statutory paid for 8 full years.* Had it not been a leap year, my notice period would have been 1/March thereby achieving a full 9 years of service and a substantial uplift of redundancy.* * What is the legal position here please? Is my employer right to calculate this as 8 years?

[luxardo]

The law stipulates a week or week and a half (depending on age) pay for every FULL year worked. I don't think you have a case, it's quite clear, FULL years. That's just my opinion, others may differ.
I think your only hope is that Feb 29 is a Saturday. What date did you receive your redundancy notice ?
In order to be 8 weeks that date would also be a Saturday (4th January by my calculation).
Do HR work on a Saturday ? You could argue that they don't, so the notice date should be Monday 6th January.

Good luck

[ostell]

I would say you have completed your 9 years.* The 1st March is day 1 of your tenth year, 29th Feb is the last day of your 9 years

Taken more simply, if you work 1 week you would work, say Sunday to Saturday, 7 days.* If you work Sunday to Sunday you have worked 8 day

[ULA]

I have to agree with ostell. If was calculating a years service if you started on 1 March one year then your year's service would complete on the last day of February whether there were 28 or 29 days in that particular year.

Another example we can all understand is the tax year runs 6 April one year to 5 April the following year that is one tax year.

Hope that helps.

[luxardo]

I would say you have completed your 9 years. The 1st March is day 1 of your tenth year, 29th Feb is the last day of your 9 years

Taken more simply, if you work 1 week you would work, say Sunday to Saturday, 7 days. If you work Sunday to Sunday you have worked 8 day

Yes but a week is ALWAYS 7 days while a year can be 365 or 366 and the rules are COMPLETE years.
Even a tax year is still a year not a number of days. If you had an expense for Feb 29th it would be included in the previous year not the next one when you made a return.
As I've already stated though, this is only my opinion

[MrsMST]

Thanks LB forumites. What I am seeking is the legal definition of a full work year. It seems that while some HR managers would see this as 9 years, others don't, so it is whatever suits the company. This cannot be right, there must be something in law which states the definition. I have checked Employment Rights Law and still can't find anything. The difference in ££ is substantial and seems worth fighting for. Does anyone work in HR and have the written definition. I think you can sense my frustration.

[Amethyst]

What date were you given notice, what notice were you given, and do you normally work Saturdays?

[luxardo]

As far as I am aware the legal definition of a year is the period starting on one day and ending on the last day of the month 12 months later.

Jan 1st - Dec 31st (standard year)
April 6th - April 5th (for fiscal tax)
April 1st - March 1st (for council tax)
For limited companies the tax year is the date the company was formed to the date before 12 months later.

And includes all the days within that period.

The only time that a leap year would be relevant would be in finance where interest is paid on a daily basis and you would get 1/365th additional interest on a leap year.
In fact when paid monthly, interest is still calculated on a daily basis, you get more in July than June for example and consequently more in February in a leap year.

Even when paid monthly a salary is paid per calendar month and is based on 12 equal payments, you don't get more in July than in June and you don't get more in February in a leap year.

Have you ever been paid an extra day's salary in February on a leap year in the past ?

[Amethyst]

This is all I can find specifically related to the definition of a year with regards redundancy.

It has been superseded by the 1996 act but I can't see anything in there. If you look at pensions legislation they refer to leap days with regards the relevant date. I also couldn't see any case law or tribunal decisions on the issue.

Sorry that isn't massively helpful. I do agree with Ostell and Ula though that your service complete year is 1st March to 28th or 29th Feb, not 1st March to 1st March. I wonder how they'd try to calculate it if your start date had fallen on a leap day.

But please come back and let us know the answer if you find one.

[luxardo]

I'm switching horses now, I think it's 9 years after considering everything again.
01/03/2011 - 29/02/2020 is 9 complete years
Final answer ? Yes Chris.

[Amethyst]

From and including: Tuesday, 1 March 2011
To and including: Saturday, 29 February 2020
Result: 3288 days

It is 3288 days from the start date to the end date, end date included.
Or 9 years including the end date.
Or 108 months including the end date.

Alternative time units

3288 days can be converted to one of these units:

• 284,083,200 seconds
• 4,734,720 minutes
• 78,912 hours
• 3288 days
• 469 weeks and 5 days

from*https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dur...&y2=2020&ti=on

if you use the 1965 act 52 weeks is a year rule then 468 weeks = 9 years.

Ahhh it's always the simple questions that end up being most complicated.

[ULA]

There is currently no definition of a complete year of service in employment law, that I am aware of, which I appreciate does not help you argue your point with your employer supported with some hard legal facts.

However I still hold with the fact that I believe you can go back and argue you have a completed 9 years of service. Hopefully between all the suggestions form the posters to this thread you have enough examples to prove a complete year of service.

If your employer does not agree and insists it is 8 years and 11 months then the process would be to raise a grievance, which may go to an appeal and if that does not resolve the matter then you could make a claim to ACAS for Early Conciliation prior to making a Employment Tribunal claim to argue the point there.*

Hopefully these latter options will not be needed. Good luck.*