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Holiday pay!

Hello all

I am an HR consultant for a large independent school, as well as a Governor for my local (state) primary school and chair of the Personnel and Communications Committee.

The independent school I work with employs term time only support staff, full time support staff, support staff who work in holidays - or both as well as teaching staff! So, it can get a little confusing.

For all those working in education, how do you work holiday for support staff? Some schools will add on 10.77pc to the basic rate/salary to cover holidays for TTO staff, and pay the salary (based on 35 weeks) equally over 12 months. But I'm not entirely comfortable with this given that it is, in effect, rolled up holiday pay!

How do you calculate how many weeks a year a term term worker works (support staff) - 35 weeks a year or 35 weeks a year plus holiday weeks - and do you calculate holiday on the 35 weeks OR 52 weeks?! 

There's one specific query - a support member of staff who works TTO X hours and also holiday periods for X hours. They currently 'roll up' her holiday (*frown*). Now, she's been working some regular overtime, so actually they should be paying the overtime at an average rate... you can see where I'm going here.

I'd love to know how you all manage holiday payments for support staff!

Many thanks

Joanne Moss MCIPD

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  • For our term time only staff we assign holidays during the holiday period. So their contract consists of, say, 38 weeks of which 32 are working weeks, 6 are holiday weeks. They also have 14 non paid weeks. Their calendar shows the 32 working weeks, the 6 holiday weeks which fall into non-term time and the remainder of the non-term time is unpaid leave. Their annual salary is paid over 12 months.

    As they have a clear holiday period, I don't believe it counts as rolled up holiday, but I may be mistaken. Our holiday year runs Sept - August in line with the academic year, so all holidays are taken within that holiday year as well.

    However, all our TTO staff predate me by many years, with quite a few TUPE'ing over from other organisations and their actual holiday allowance is much more generous than ours and follows rules that no-one really understands!
    If we were recruiting now, we'd pro-rata the holiday.

    I think it was on here that I found advice on the best way to pro-rata holiday. 10.77% is likely too low, 12.07% is a more realistic figure if you don't have any additional holidays above the statutory as (if I remember correctly) 10.77% would assume that a full time worker has to work all 52 weeks to get the holiday back, where in fact the 52 weeks includes holiday.

    I hope that all makes sense.
  • Hi Sarah

    If you pay TTO across 12 months then it is not rolled up holiday - in our schools TTO staff work 38 weeks, however, receive pay for the equivalent of ~44 weeks to account for holiday entitlement. This is then split across 12 months so they are in fact paid when they take their holiday during schools closures.

    Staff who work all, their 52 weeks actually include holiday - example FT staff work 45 weeks and have 7 weeks holiday (incl of BHs). So to pro rata holiday for TTO staff, divide 38 working weeks by 45 working weeks x 7 holiday weeks = ~6 weeks holiday.

    As Sarah says, if your holiday allowance for full time staff is above statutory, you should not be using 10.77% (or the correct 12.07%) as this is only for statutory entitlement - by doing so you're treating part timers/TTO staff detrimentally. You need to calculate your school's percentage e.g. the above example would be 7 holiday weeks divided by 45 working weeks = 15.56%, so that is the minimum percentage holiday you should be paying to all staff.

    Regarding your query - all year workers' salaries include their "holiday pay" so I wouldn't treat a TTO staff member any differently - you'd need to pay their normal hourly rate (or whatever rate they are contractually entitled to).

    Irregular workers calculations can be very confusing and I hope I haven't added to it!
  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Apologies - Hi Joanne :)
  • In reply to Sarah:

    Thank you Sarah, this makes complete sense and does help to put my mind at rest. I have already broached the subject of the 10.77pc with them, but both you and Kimberly (see below) agree that it's too low so again, I feel that you've help reiterate what I thought.
    Thanks again! Good to share some insight into what others do.
    Jo
  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Hi Kimberly
    Thank you! I echo my reply to Sarah (above), it's been good to get other views on how they manage this. Your response has been useful. Thank you.
    Jo
  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Hi again, could you share the relevant wording from your contract regarding holidays / remuneration as I think ours is confusing! Thank you
  • In reply to Joanne:

    Hi Joanne

    The holiday clause reads:

    Term-Time-Only Employees

    If you are employed on a Term-Time-Only basis you are not entitled to take annual leave in term time. Your annual salary will have been calculated to include payment for your leave entitlement as set out under point 19.5 [table showing leave entitlements].

    The formula to calculate ‘term time’ equivalents has been harmonised to ensure equality between part time hours and part time weeks, compared to full time staff.

    All-Year-Round Employees

    Annual leave can be taken at the discretion of your line-manager and accounting for the needs of the organisation and the duties of your post unless stated otherwise. In addition to your annual leave you will be entitled to public holidays relevant to England.*

    All annual leave and public holidays are classified as paid leave. Should you leave the Trust at a point when there is a difference between your annual leave earned and taken, the proportionate adjustments to your final salary will be made. 

    On the cover page where we put the individual's specific information, we also show that they are contracted to term-time working at 38 weeks per year, and are paid for 44 weeks per year (sometimes staff work additional days e.g. +10 days during school closure and we include this and adjust the weeks pay accordingly to take into account the additional holiday entitlement).

    Although a MAT, we still use the national T&Cs so make reference to this too, and during the HR inductions, we explain how pay works with the 12 equal monthly payments and have staff sign to say they've understood.

    We still of course get grumbles of why support staff pay is pro rated and teacher's' pay isn't, but that's a different kettle of fish all together!

    Hope that helps!

  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Perfect, thank you!
  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Hi Kimberly

    Just discovered this thread and have been having similar challenges. The organisation I work with does the TTO and pays stat so work holiday currently on 38wk + 5.6wks. However, some of the TTO staff work part time. How do you work this (or don't you?).

    Thanks
  • In reply to Cath:

    If they work the same number of hours every week it shouldn't matter as a week is a week. If they work 39 hours per week, they'll be entitled to 5.6 weeks at 39hrs per week, if they work 15 it will be 5.6 at 15 hours per week.
  • In reply to Cath:

    Hi Cath

    5.6 weeks is the minimum for someone who is contracted all year - so in effect they work 46.4 weeks per year with 5.6 weeks holiday per year.

    You should pro rata the holiday entitlement for those that work less than 46.4.

    There is no provision for treating part time workers more favourably than full timers, so if you do not pro rata the entitlement there is no need to worry.

    As Sarah has said, a weeks holiday is the same as their contracted week e.g. 37hrs or 15hrs etc.
  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Thanks Kimberly (and Sarah).

    It's compounded by the fact that a number of them don't work the same hours every week across the 38 wks that they do work. (i.e. there is termly variance so my thinking was could apply the 12.07% formula averaged across prior 12 wks but gets complicated!) Appreciate that stat. provision doesn't worry about treating part-timers more favourably but in practical terms, there has been discussion about this around this amongst the full timers!

    The discussion arose from the fact that their current practice is rolling up into monthly salary, so have been exploring how to de-couple this and make sure the calculation is correct!

    Thanks for your replies - very helpful. And welcome any further suggestions

    Cath
  • In reply to Cath:

    Do you pay them an annual salary? If so, this should include holiday pay as it would a full timer. Their salary is then adjusted throughout the year as the hours change, which would take into account the holiday entitlement e.g. a full timer is paid £24,00 for 46.4 weeks + holiday and the TTO equivalent is £22,028 for 38 weeks + holiday. If the TTO weekly hours change, you pro rata the £22,028, but this will always include holiday pay.

    If you're talking casual workers, there was a recent case and guidance on this - I'll see if I can find it...
  • In reply to Kimberly:

    Brazel v Harpur Trust UKEAT/0102/17 is the case you need to review
  • In reply to David:

    Thanks David, appreciate the note.