Amendment to the Working Time Regulations - Pay and Carryover of holidays
The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 came into force on 1st January 2024 and set out the legal obligations on carry over of holiday and what constitutes pay for the purposes of calculating holiday pay.
Carryover of holidays and holiday pay
Carryover of leave
Workers will be able to carryover 5.6 weeks leave into the next holiday year if they are unable to take the leave due to having taken statutory leave(e.g. maternity leave, adoption leave etc).
Workers will be able to carryover 4 weeks leave if they are unable to take the leave because of sickness. Leave carried over must be taken by the end of the period of 18 months from the end of the leave year in which the entitlement originally arose.
Workers will also be able to carry over 4 weeks leave where:
- the employer fails to recognize a worker’s right to paid annual leave
- the employer fails to give the worker reasonable opportunity to take leave or to encourage them to do so
- the employer fails to inform the worker that any leave not taken by the end of the leave year, which can be carried over, will be lost.
Payment of Leave
The 4 weeks EU based leave must include:
- payments, including commission payments, which are intrinsically linked to the performance of tasks which a worker is obliged to carry out under the terms of their contract.
- payments for professional or personal status relating to length of service, seniority or professional qualifications.
- other payments, such as overtime payments, which have been regularly paid to a worker in the 12 weeks preceding the calculation date.
See link to the legislation below
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2023/223/regulation/2/made