You can read about changes to statutory holiday pay rules from 1 April 2024 in ‘Holiday pay and entitlement reforms’ on GOV.UK. This builds on The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, which in turn amends the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) incorporating case law derived rights and rules for a newly defined category of irregular hours and part year workers.

Irregular hours or part-year worker?
For holiday years starting 1 April 2024, holiday pay under the WTR is calculated based on a new accrual method under new regulation 15B, which also removes the application of regulation 13 and regulation 13A holiday (with different rules as to holiday pay and carry-over rights).

Irregular hours worker = the contract says paid hours per pay period will be “wholly or mostly variable”.

Part-year worker = workers who aren’t required to work for at least one week a year, during which they are unpaid.

Rolled up holiday pay (RUHP) 
For holiday years starting on 1 April 2024, employers can pay accrued annual leave entitlement as RUHP on the last day of each pay reference period at the rate of 12.07% of the workers pay during that pay reference period. Employers must still ensure that workers take their entitlement to 5.6 weeks leave.

How much holiday and at what rate?
For calculating payment for statutory leave when it’s taken or RUHP, employers must also take into account:

  • payments, including commission payments, intrinsically linked to the performance of contractual tasks
  • payments for professional or personal status relating to length of service, seniority or professional qualifications
  • other payments, for example regular overtime payments.

Employers choosing to pay for statutory holidays when taken, rather than RUHP, must calculate entitlement in hours not weeks, at a rate of 12.07% of the hours worked in that pay period (maximum of 28 days each year), and use the existing 52-week reference period (excluding unpaid weeks or statutory leave) to calculate average holiday pay. 

Irregular hours workers will accrue holiday during sick leave or statutory leave, using an average over a 52-week reference period to calculate the amount of holiday accrued.