Zero Hours Contract & Holiday Pay

[jesmond]

My niece is on a zero hours contract in care work, basically if she doesnt work then doesnt get holiday pay which is accrued weekly for holiday pay which she can take as and when she wants. I questioned this with her and she said she is paid £9 an hour but £1 is accrued for hol pay so she actually comes out with the £8, so if she works 30hours then £30 goes into her holiday pay fund and she gets the 8 x 30 pay. Anyone else heard of this kind of practice as its completely new to me. TIA

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds strange to me; but there again the concept of just being on beck & call contracts and unable to take work elsewhere, seems strange to me. Sounds like further erosion of workers' rights/expectations by employers.

[fiction-factory]

I have zero hours contracts.
I have had it this way with one agency/employer- I could draw down on my holiday pay when required.
But it normally works the other way for me. My hourly rate includes holiday pay. So when I take a holiday/don't work I get nothing.

[woofgang]

It could be argued that it is not a practice as such but a different way of expressing the same figures....if she was paid £9 ph and received no holiday pay would it affect her tax or NI contributions?

[fiction-factory]

Some may be like that but I would steer clear of them- there are plenty of zero hours contract employers who are flexible. The employer is also at the employee's beck and call. I have several employers and can pick and choose which jobs I want and when I want to work.

[fiction-factory]

^ I should have made it clear- my post was in response to O_G's

[fiction-factory]

Zero hours suits me , OG, and suits lots of people such as students but although it provides a good fairly steady source of income it does mean I can have 6-8 weeks in the summer without pay and occasional days with no work so it wouldn't have suited me when I had a mortgage, school fees and other big commitments. It is nota good way of saving for a pension either but i don't need that now. Horses for courses really, but there are undoubtedly some employers who exploit their zero hours contract workers. I wouldn't do it for £9 an hour either.

[woofgang]

when I worked in the NHS, we had a small group of staff on zero hours contracts. They all had reasons why they didn't want to work set hours (one lived in Hong Kong and came home for the summer) In the NHS then, every time clinical staff started a new contract, they were required to do all the mandatory training and it took a while to get them onto the payroll, even if they were know to us and had worked with us recently. There was also the police check issue which again took time and cost us money. With a zero hours contract, they could contact us one day and start work the next. We kept records of their training so that they kept up to date and salary payment was not delayed.

[jesmond]

It still doesnt make sense to me or maybe its the way alot of firms are run thesedays. If she doesnt get hours then when she wants to take holidays she then has no money for that week or weeks she has hols.

[fiction-factory]

I read it that she can draw accrued holiday pay when she wants to take a holiday- maybe in the weeks she gets no work.

[jesmond]

Yes if she has accrued money when she has worked. No work then no accrued money

[woofgang]

In most cases, people are only paid for the hours they work....if you work half time, you get 0.5 of what a full time worker gets. Anybody's salary could be calculated over the amount of time they actually work, ie not paid for leave. the total salary remains the same but the hourly rate would go up. In your daughter's case, they could either calculate her hourly rate at £9 ph and no paid holiday or at £8 with paid holiday....its why I asked about the tax and NI situation. If she want to understand why the company calculates it this way then the people to ask are her employers.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, if you don't work you don't accrue holiday pay.
Maybe ashe should seek a non zero contract hours job if she wants consistent weekly pay but even then you have to work to earn holidays and you lose the flexibilty that comes with a zero hours job- eg if you want a day off without having to request it months in advance

[jesmond]

I have said this to her but its upto her, as long as she gets some work then she will be ok