Complex shift patterns need sophisicated software to create them

C-DESK TECHNOLOGY

ONE LINK IN THE CHAIN OF SUCCESSFUL SHIFT OPERATIONS

ALEC JEZEWSKI DR. ANGELA MOORE alec@shiftpatterns.com angela@shiftpatterns.com 01636 816466

HOLIDAY PAY

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Holiday pay falls into 2 distinct variants, 1. Full time staff who receive holidays irrespective of the hours worked, ie 4 weeks annual leave(20 days) at the normal daily hours rate(8 hours holiday pay if they normally work an 8 hour day) 2. Holiday pay is accrued according to how many hours the staff work. This would be a ratio, say, for 4 weeks proportional leave, this would be expressed as a percentage and used as a multiplier of their hours actually worked. For instance, if a part time member of staff receives the equivalent of 4 weeks holiday pay, pro rata, this works out as 5mins of holiday pay for every hour they work. The calculations are fairly simple. Assuming a 52 week year & working 5 days/week, gives 260 days of work & holidays. 4 weeks holiday is 20 days, and taking this away from the total of 260, leaves 240 working days. Dividing the holidays by the working days gives 20/240=1/12=8.5% and this works out as 5 minutes per hour. Each shift then has a certain time associated with holiday pay. An 8 hour shift is 40 minutes, a 6 hour shift has 30 minutes. All the shifts can be similarly multiplied. By using the original staff schedule, and inputing the shifts into each staffs holiday file, you can instantly work out everyones holiday entitlement. Exceptions to this method are few, it depends on the company rules. One exception is a waiting period before holiday pay can accrue. The above is simple enough, everyone knew what pay they would receive if they took a day of holiday. They accrued days, or hours, of holiday according to the company rules and used them in taking days, or hours off work. However, the rule is that when an employee took a holiday they should receive their average rate of pay for the time they take as holiday. By average, the meaning was their average pay including extra earnings such as working overtime in addition to their contracted hours. The average pay is not easy to calculate and it is further complicated by the rules on the average pay only needing to be paid on 4 weeks of holiday. Holiday entitlement in any further holiday entitlement are paid at the basic rate of pay. The employer can decide when the 4 weeks are so they can be the first 4 weeks of holiday, for instance.

The rules given by the UK Government can change at any time, so you should bear this in mind when setting out the holiday policies. As of October 2025 when I wrote this page, these are the rules stated on the UK Government website.

Holiday pay Workers are entitled to a week’s pay for each week of statutory leave that they take. Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year. You can use the holiday calculator to work out how much leave someone should get. How to work out a week’s pay A week’s pay is worked out according to the kind of hours someone works and how they’re paid for the hours. This includes full-time, part-time, term-time and casual workers.

Working pattern

How a week’s pay is calculated

Regular hours and fixed pay (full- or part-time)

A worker’s pay for a week

Shift work with regular hours (full- or part-time)

The average number of weekly fixed hours a worker has worked in the previous 52 weeks, at their average hourly rate

Irregular-hours and part-year work

A worker’s average pay from the previous 52 weeks (only counting weeks in which they were paid)

Calculating average hourly or weekly rate To calculate average hourly rate, only the hours worked and how much was paid for them should be counted. Take the average rate over the last 52 weeks. A ‘week’ usually runs from Sunday to Saturday. Only use another 7-day period (like Thursday to Wednesday) if that’s how a worker’s pay is calculated. If no pay was paid in any week, count back another week so the rate is based on 52 weeks in which pay was paid. You can count back a maximum of 104 weeks to find these. If a worker has less than 52 weeks of pay, use the average pay rate for the full weeks they have worked.

Basic’ and ‘normal’ rate of pay For regular-hours workers (full- or part-time), employers must pay: at least 4 weeks of the worker’s statutory entitlement at their ‘normal’ rate of pay the remaining 1.6 weeks at a ‘basic’ rate of pay For workers who work part of the year, employers must also follow these rules if the worker’s leave year began on or before 31 March 2024. For irregular-hours workers or those who work part of the year, all leave must be paid at their ‘normal’ rate of pay. ‘Normal’ rate of pay includes commission, regular overtime payments, and any payments related to length of service or professional qualifications. It does not usually include bonus payments.

Rolled-up holiday pay For regular-hours workers (full- or part- time), an employer cannot include an amount for holiday pay in the hourly rate (known as ‘rolled-up holiday pay’). Employers can use rolled-up holiday pay for irregular-hours and part-year workers, unless their leave year began on or before 31 March 2024.