Guide

Holiday pay for part-year and irregular-hours workers

What Harpur Trust v Brazel decided, what changed on 1 April 2024, and how to tell which rule applies to a given leave year. Written for the person who has to explain it to someone who disagrees.

The short answer. Two rules exist and both are correct, for different leave years. For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue 12.07% of the hours they actually work. For leave years that began before that date, Brazel applies and they were entitled to the full 5.6 weeks with no reduction for the weeks they did not work. What decides it is when the leave year began.

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What the case actually decided

Lesley Brazel was a visiting music teacher at Bedford Girls School, run by the Harpur Trust. She taught saxophone and clarinet during term time only, usually between ten and fifteen hours a week, with no guaranteed minimum, and did no work during school holidays. Her contract ran all year round.

From September 2011 the Trust calculated her holiday pay as 12.07% of the hours she had taught that term. Mrs Brazel argued she was entitled to the statutory 5.6 weeks, paid at her average weekly earnings over the preceding weeks in which she had worked, the method the Working Time Regulations actually set out.

In July 2022 the Supreme Court unanimously agreed with her. The Trust had argued that this produced an absurd result, because a term-time worker ends up with holiday pay representing a larger share of annual earnings than a full-time colleague. The court accepted that was the effect and held it did not matter: the Regulations said what they said, and there was no warrant for reading a pro-rating principle into them.

Why it mattered

Before Brazel, 12.07% was near-universal for zero-hours and term-time staff. The judgment made it unlawful for part-year workers on permanent contracts overnight, and exposed schools, colleges, care providers and seasonal employers to back-pay claims for every year they had used it.

It also created the gap the government later closed: two workers doing identical hours could end up with materially different leave, depending only on whether their contract ran across the gaps.

What changed on 1 April 2024

The Working Time Regulations were amended to reintroduce an accrual method, deliberately reversing the practical effect of Brazel for these workers. For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024:

Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, on the last day of that pay period.
Part hours are rounded down below thirty minutes and up at thirty minutes or more.
Employers may instead pay rolled-up holiday pay: an extra 12.07% on each payslip, shown as a separate line, on top of pay that already meets the National Minimum Wage.
Where a contract gives more than the statutory 5.6 weeks, the percentage changes: weeks ÷ (52 − weeks) × 100. Six weeks gives 13.04%.

The 12.07% figure is not arbitrary. 5.6 weeks of leave leaves 46.4 working weeks in the year, and 5.6 is 12.07% of 46.4.

Who these rules cover

Irregular-hours worker

Someone whose paid hours in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable under their contract. Typically zero-hours, casual and bank contracts.

Not someone on a fixed rotating rota. Acas gives the example of a two-week pattern of 15 hours then 20 hours: the pattern varies, the hours do not.

Part-year worker

Someone contracted to work only part of the year, with periods of at least a week when they are neither required to work nor paid, and whose contract continues through those periods.

Term-time staff and seasonal workers are the obvious cases. Fixed hours do not stop someone being a part-year worker.

The duty most employers have not noticed

From 6 April 2026, keeping holiday records is a legal requirement. Employers must record holiday taken, holiday carried over, holiday pay and any payments in lieu, and must show what was included in holiday pay, bonuses or commission, for example. Records must be kept for at least 6 years.

The Fair Work Agency enforces it. An employer who cannot produce records may be committing a criminal offence, with penalties expected to include unlimited fines, demands for underpaid holiday and further financial penalties.

Acas is explicit that a spreadsheet is acceptable. The difficulty is not the format: it is that under the accrual method entitlement changes every pay period, per worker, and has to be reconstructed years later from the hours that were actually worked. That is a records problem before it is a payroll problem.

Common questions

Is Harpur Trust v Brazel still good law?

The judgment has not been overturned by a court, but Parliament changed the legislation it was interpreting. For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue leave at 12.07% of hours worked. For leave years that began before that date, the Brazel position still applies: the full 5.6 weeks, with no pro-rating.

Which date decides which rule applies?

The date the leave year began, not today's date, and not the date the work was done. An employer whose leave year runs from 1 January was still on the old rules for the whole of 2024, because that leave year began on 1 January 2024, before 1 April 2024. The first leave year under the new method started 1 January 2025.

How far back can a holiday pay claim go?

An unlawful deduction from wages claim must normally be brought within three months of the deduction, and a series of deductions can extend that. There is a two-year backstop on most claims. This is one of the reasons the pre-2024 position still matters: a claim brought now can reach into leave years where Brazel governed.

Does the 12.07% method apply to part-time staff on regular hours?

No. Someone working the same three days every week all year round is a part-time worker, not an irregular-hours worker. They get 5.6 weeks pro-rated to their days, 16.8 days for a three-day week. The accrual method is only for workers whose hours are wholly or mostly variable, or who are contracted to work part of the year.

Is a rotating shift pattern 'irregular hours'?

Not if the hours are fixed by the contract. Acas gives the example of a two-week rota with 15 hours in week one and 20 in week two: the pattern varies but the hours are fixed, so the worker is not an irregular-hours worker. What matters is whether the contract makes the hours variable, not whether the diary looks uneven.

What records do employers have to keep?

From 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of holiday taken, holiday carried over, holiday pay and any payments in lieu, and must keep them for at least 6 years. Records must show what was included in holiday pay, bonuses or commission, for example. The Fair Work Agency enforces this, and an employer who cannot produce records may be committing a criminal offence.

Sources

This is general information, not legal advice. It covers the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks, your contracts may give more, and they take precedence. If a case is close to the line, ring Acas on 0300 123 1100 or take advice.

Holiday records that hold up

ClockedInOne keeps the hours behind every entitlement figure, so a record going back 6 years is something you look up rather than rebuild.

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