As many in the education sector know, the Supreme court handed down a landmark judgement in July 2022, ratifying the decisions of the Employment Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal, in dismissing the appeals of the Respondent Academy Trust in Harpur Trust v Brazel. Whilst some time has passed since the judgment was handed down, many institutions are still grappling with what it means in practice, and whether changes need to be made to payroll in order to avoid, or at least minimise, future risk.
Essentially, the Supreme Court ruled that any worker who has a continuing contract throughout the year, but only works for certain periods during the year (such as term time only workers) must have their holiday pay calculated in the same way as colleagues who work the entire year. The Supreme Court dismissed the argument that employers should be able to reduce part-year workers' holiday entitlement on a pro-rated basis equivalent to the number of hours they work.