The European Court of Justice has confirmed that the holiday pay of a worker on a zero hours contract placed on short-time working can be calculated on a pro rata basis.
The Supreme Court has remitted to the employment tribunal the case brought by British Airways pilots in relation to the inclusion of flying allowances in the calculation of their holiday pay, following the results of the reference to the European Court of Justice on whether or not "normal remuneration" during a period of annual leave should include allowances on top of basic pay.
In this case, a security company told workers that their 28-day entitlement to annual leave would be reduced because they were paid double for working bank or public holidays. The Northern Ireland industrial tribunal found this to be a breach of the workers' statutory right to a minimum of 28 days' annual leave.
The Court of Appeal has held that an NHS worker who was absent for the whole leave year and who did not submit any requests for annual leave during her absence was entitled to holiday pay on the termination of her employment.
The European Court of Justice has confirmed that a worker who is sick during a period of annual leave cannot be precluded from taking the holiday at a time other than that originally scheduled, irrespective of when the incapacity for work first arose.
In Russell and others v Transocean International Resources Ltd and others [2012] IRLR 149 SC, the Supreme Court held that offshore workers' regular onshore field breaks constitute annual leave for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998.