Sarah King looks at the various scenarios and conundrums facing employers of workers on variable hours
- Covers implications of Harpur Trust v Brazel, a Supreme Court decision on the holiday pay entitlement of workers with variable hours.
Paid holiday is a fundamental and long-established feature of UK employment contracts. But the question of how employers calculate holiday pay for workers with variable hours has been the subject of much debate. This issue has recently been settled by the Supreme Court, which delivered its judgment on the matter in July in the case of Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022] UKSC 21, [2022] All ER (D) 72 (Jul). In doing so, it upheld the Court of Appeal’s 2019 decision in the case: that part-year workers should not have their paid holiday apportioned.
Circumstances of work
The case was originally brought by Mrs Brazel, a music teacher who was employed on a permanent zero-hours contract by Harpur Trust, a charity which operates a number of independent schools
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