Richard Webster & Co Solicitors, a South East-based solicitors specialising in employment law, have responded to Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling on overtime and holiday pay.

At the beginning of November, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), a tribunal public body created to hear appeals from Employment Tribunals, judged that when calculating holiday pay, employers should take overtime into account.

The EAT ruling, featuring (1) Bear Scotland v Fulton (2) Hertel (UK) Ltd v Woods and (3) Amec Group Ltd v Law cases, underlined European law which states that any ‘non-guaranteed’ overtime needs to be salaried as part of annual leave and argued that you could interpret UK law in much the same way.

Speaking to Recruiter, associate at law firm Thorntons, Graeme Dickson, said: “You would be looking at overtime that is not necessarily compulsory but the employer can ask for it.

“I’m not so sure that the judgement would go so far as to say if someone works 9 to 5 they can choose to put in an extra half hour and whether that would be included on the grounds that the employer would be able to say that ‘well we never asked’ you to stay the extra half hour’.”

The decision means that workers who’ve taken holidays in the past three months are able to make claims against their employers to get money back.

The ruling has been a hot topic amongst employees, employers and legal experts, with many warning that the ruling could lead to a floodgate of claims against employers, something Richard Webster & Co Solicitors believes employers, especially small businesses, must be wary of.

Richard Webster & Co, a legal firm who regularly follow and respond to relevant industry news, say the move could be costly for unprepared businesses.

A spokesman for Richard Webster & Co said: “UK businesses are currently facing a very real threat. There’s potential for punitive costs which could very easily climb into the billions, which means a number of small businesses could fail to make it through, potentially leading to UK job losses.

“Another problem is that the ruling has made many businesses out there uncertain. Business owners are worried. Decisions on investment and resourcing have slowed. Many want the government to step in and come to the defence of existing UK law. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the government is to this ruling and I know there are many like us who are observing the case keenly.”

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