Casual work and maternity pay/holidays.

I work for a small company but I have no set weekly hours. I work week to week and only find out what hours/days I will work a week in advance. It could be 3 hours only to maybe 30 hours, sometimes (rarely) there maybe be no work.

I am due to go on maternity leave in Decemeber, they will not be paying maternity leave but what holiday pay would I be entitled to when I'm on maternity leave. They say none but I can't see how this is correct. At the moment I get 8% of my wages every month to cover my holiday pay.

Are they correct that I am entitled to nothing while on maternity benefit. I'm working with them 2 years.

They should not be paying you 8% of your wages - Its 8% of hours worked .

If you are paid holiday pay monthly as you say above , you will be overpaid if the hours worked included overtime hours .

Sorry it is 8% of hours worked. I never do overtime, as I never do anymore than 30 hours.

My main concern is am I entitled to any holiday pay/bank hols while on maternity leave.

If you work 30 hours per week , you pass the 1365 hours qualification for holiday pay . ( 30 x 52 = 1560 hours )

Therefore you qualify for full holiday entitlement of 20 days ( normally includes 1/2 day Good Friday & 1/2 Day Christmas Eve )

From 1st Jan to 30th Sept , you have been paid 8 % of 1170 hours ( 30 hrs pw x 39 weeks = 1170 hours - based on you working 30 hrs per week )

However , as you don't work 30 hours every week , your entitlement will depend on the number of hours you have worked so far this year .

If the total number of hours worked so far this year exceeds 1365 , you are entitled to 20 days for 2010.

Thanks allthedoyles, my hours wouldn't exceed 1365. I would normally work 14-20 hours and like I said it could be 5 hours/10hours some weeks.

How do I calculate how much I get based on the hours I've worked. My maternity leave will start the 20th of Dec this year and run into 2011.

allthedoyles said:

If you work 30 hours per week , you pass the 1365 hours qualification for holiday pay . ( 30 x 52 = 1560 hours )

Therefore you qualify for full holiday entitlement of 20 days ( normally includes 1/2 day Good Friday & 1/2 Day Christmas Eve )

From 1st Jan to 30th Sept , you have been paid 8 % of 1170 hours ( 30 hrs pw x 39 weeks = 1170 hours - based on you working 30 hrs per week )

However , as you don't work 30 hours every week , your entitlement will depend on the number of hours you have worked so far this year .

If the total number of hours worked so far this year exceeds 1365 , you are entitled to 20 days for 2010.

Click to expand...

Maybe slightly off topic but if the 30 hours are worked over 4 days or even 3 days does the following info apply? This was taken from the employment rights website.

"An employee’s normal working week is four days per week at

40 hours per week. This employee works more than 117 hours
per month. Therefore this employee accrues paid annual leave
at the rate of one day and one third (or 1.34 days) per month
worked i.e.​

leave year."

TillyD said:

Thanks allthedoyles, my hours wouldn't exceed 1365. I would normally work 14-20 hours and like I said it could be 5 hours/10hours some weeks.
How do I calculate how much I get based on the hours I've worked. My maternity leave will start the 20th of Dec this year and run into 2011.

Click to expand...

My view is that due to the variation in hours worked , your employers are paying you the correct holiday pay . - which is 8% of hours worked .

It would be an unusual practice for employers to pay holiday at the end of each month as seems to be in your case . So your holiday pay is up to date , and therefore you have no further entitlement until you resume work .

You see , you work less than 1365 hours a year , and you also work less than 117 hours per month , so in your case , the holiday entitlement is 8% of hours worked .

In my opinion , employers normally allow this to accrue and would normally pay same on request prior to holiday leave . But from readng your opening post , your situation is different than the norm .

Thanks again allthedoyles, but this isn't holiday leave, it's maternity leave. Is that not different? I thought I would still be entitled to my holiday pay while off on maternity leave but I don't know how to calculate it. I suppose I'll have to let it be if I can't work prove to them that I am entitled to it.

Give NERA a call, they should be able to set you right
[broken link removed]

TillyD
Your annual leave entitlement is probably being calculated correctly at 8% of hours worked. However, the company is in error in paying you the wages every month - your entitlement is to paid leave i.e. you must be absent from the workplace for 4 working weeks per year on paid holidays. The Labour Court has said that because the thinking behind leave is for health & safety reasons the employee must be absent for the leave even if they themselves would prefer to be paid them.

As regards maternity leave, you continue to accumulate annual leave entitlement as if you were working. If you take into account the comments above, this means that you are accumulating an entitlement to paid time off not just to the money - in a lot of cases employees would look to take this leave after their maternity leave to extend their time off.