Holiday Entitlement Calculation Reference Point For New Workers - Current/Next Month?

[digiman999]

Hi Folks,

I need clarification on what the Working Time Regulations specifies about holiday entitlement for new employees.

The 15A WTR Amendment specifies:

"For the purposes of paragraph (1), leave is deemed to accrue over the course of the worker’s first year of employment, at the rate of one-twelfth of the amount specified in regulation 13(1) on the first day of each month of that year"

Does this mean

1. The first of the month after the month I started working
   1. Meaning an employee is only entitled to 11 months holiday, instead of 11.5 (if starting half way through the month), reducing the holiday below the legal minimum 5.6 week pro rata). Because holiday can't be carried over to the next year, this interpretation would make the employee unable to take the 12th months holiday, as they haven't 'accrued' it yet
   2. This is seemingly the interpretation my employer has used to calculate the holiday entitlement
2. The first of the month that I started working?
   1. Giving the full 12 months (pro rated)
   2. ex if you started half way through a month, you would be entitled to half of 1/12th the annual entitlement
   3. This aligns with the UK Governments holiday entitlement calculator

The employment contract states

"In the holiday year(s) in which your employment commences and terminates, holiday entitlement will accrue at the rate of 1/12th of the annual entitlement per completed month of service"

This seems pretty dodgy, but might be the way they've interpreted the ambiguous 15A Amendment.

Your help is very much appreciated.

[ULA]

As you quite rightly say the legislation does not state whether the start of a month means the first day of each calendar month (for example 1st January, 1st February etc), or whether the first month begins on the first day in the job, the next month begins one month on and so on (for example, for a worker who starts on 15th January, the first month begins on that day, the second month begins on 15 February etc). The view typically taken (which is not legally binding), is that the second interpretation is more likely to be correct, so that the first month begins on the first day of the job, the second month begins one month later and so on.

Given that the contract of employment you have been given states “..holiday entitlement will accrue at the rate of 1/12th of the annual entitlement per completed month of service.” This supports the second interpretation in my opinion.