The Government recently commissioned Kantar Media to conduct a poll of over 2,000 people to ascertain how aware they were of their rights to holiday pay.
This poll highlighted an alarming lack of awareness and made it very clear that many workers do not understand their rights to receive holiday pay. For example, approximately 50% of those surveyed believed that workers who are on zero hour contracts have no entitlement to holiday pay whatsoever when of course this is not the case.
The Unpaid Britain Report published by Middlesex University and the Trust for London has also confirmed that in the UK alone 1.8million people are not receiving the holiday pay to which they are entitled, and are therefore losing out on approximately £1.8billion each year.
The Government’s reaction to this serious issue is to launch the “It comes with the job” campaign as part of their Industrial Strategy, which was originally published in 2017.
The campaign will feature advertising via Video on Demand, Spotify, digital websites and social media, as well as physical advertisements in train stations and on the roadside. The particular groups to be targeted by the campaign are those such as flexible workers, people on zero hour contracts, agency workers and temporary staff. The reason for this is that it is precisely these groups who are most at risk of not receiving the holiday pay to which they are entitled.
On the whole, those workers on fixed hours, who receive the same pay each week or month, know precisely how much holiday pay they can reasonably expect to receive. It is those whose pay and hours are more flexible and which vary, who appear to be missing out on substantial sums each and every year.
Whether you are a ‘staycationer’ or an exotic land traveler, it is important to know your rights when it comes to holiday pay and entitlement.
If you have a query relating to this article, or require further advice on other aspects of employment or HR law, please contact Jonathan Moreland, jmm@swinburnemaddison.co.uk, or Sharney Randhawa, shr@swinburnemaddison.co.uk, or call us on 0191 3842441.
