Working time, holiday, sickness

Our employment barristers are adept at handling working time issues and challenges around taking time off work.

Statutory holiday is the 5.6 weeks’ holiday that workers are entitled to under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Problematic areas include the rights of workers to paid holiday whilst absent on maternity or sick leave for example, and whether any entitlement to leave can be carried over in to the next leave year.  There have also been several important cases that have changed the way employers should calculate statutory holiday pay for some workers, particularly those who are on commission based pay or who would otherwise be entitled to work overtime during the period leave is taken. It is likely that many people are still being underpaid for their holidays by their employers and may have a claim for arrears of pay.

As well as workers having an entitlement to seek compensation for any failure to ensure that they receive the correct daily and weekly rest breaks, employers failing to comply with the requirements of the 1998 Regulations could face a criminal conviction if successful enforcement action is taken against them by the Health & Safety Executive (or other relevant statutory enforcement agencies).

The 3PB team represents both employers and employees in these issues providing a commercially-focused and high quality service.