Tribunal Ruled that Voluntary Overtime Should be Reflected in Holiday Pay

As stated on Midlands (West) Employment Tribunal ruling, voluntary overtime work should be reflected in holiday pay calculations if it is “sufficiently regular”.

The judgment is based on the case of White & Others v Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Here, 56 tradesmen claim for unpaid holiday pay and argued that their voluntary overtime, standby and call out work must be considered “normal”. According to the council, the tradesmen were not obliged to do extra work based on their contracts. Thus, it was voluntary and didn’t form part of their contractual pay.

Judge Warren of the Midlands (West) Employment Tribunal presided the case and ruled that voluntary overtime, standby and call out payments should be should be reflected when computing a worker’s holiday pay, as they should be considered “normal pay” if the work was done with “sufficient regularity”.

The tradesmen worked on a Saturday on a voluntary basis. They were also elected to go on standby every four weeks in order to deal with emergency call outs. As their voluntary overtime, standby and call out work had been undertaken regularly for a number of years, payment for their work had become part of their normal, expected pay.

Meanwhile, there’s an uncertainty on what should be a “sufficiently regularity” is. As stated by Jonathan Gidney, the barrister at St Philips Chambers who represented the claimants, once every quarter, or more, would be considered as ‘regular’ work, while once every six months might be pushing it a bit.

The ruling for such case is a first-instance decision. Thus, it is not binding. Laurence O’Neill, employment solicitor at OH Parsons, who represented the case on behalf of the tradesmen, stated that what they have done so far is establish the principle, believing that the ruling could prove highly significant. They will now see at each claimant’s individual case to find out whether there is a benefit to them to take the claim forward.