Underpayment of Holiday Pay

On 22 May 2014, UNISON member Joe Lock was successful in his claim, Lock v British Gas. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that a worker’s 20 days statutory annual leave pay should include commission payments if these were part of normal pay.

The Employment Tribunal will decide how UK law will now be interpreted in light of this decision. It is likely that whatever decision is reached by the Employment Tribunal will be appealed through the higher courts, so it may be a long time before any payments are received.

If members are regularly paid payments for time or activities at work that are not paid when they take annual leave (e.g. commission payments, other supplements, bonuses or overtime payments) then there may be entitlement to increased holiday pay in future and back pay.

Unison Dumfries & Galloway Branch have written to all the employers where we have members, and asked what they intend to do in relation to unpaid holiday pay in respect of additional payments during working time.  Because Employment Tribunal claims for unpaid holiday pay must be made within 3 months of the latest underpayment we have raise collective grievances on behalf of all members with those employers who have not responded to our letter.

What you need to do

If you think you may have a claim, contact the branch office. This will allow us to keep you up to date on your employer’s response and on UNISON’s strategy.  You should ensure that you keep your contact details up to date.  The easiest and quickest means of contact is through email. Don’t worry if you don’t have an email address as we will still write out to members as required.

You should contact the branch immediately if:

• Your employer stops making the payments for commission, other supplements, bonuses or over-time pay;
• The employer starts paying any unpaid commission, other supplements, bonuses or overtime pay during annual leave.
• You leave employment or change jobs and want to pursue a claim.