However, the recalculation should only be applied going forward and need not be applied retrospectively to the whole leave year.
Facts
In Greenfield v The Care Bureau Limited, Ms Greenfield was a care worker at The Care Bureau Ltd (CBL). Her contract stated that her working days and hours differed from week to week. As of June 2012, however, Ms Greenfield was working one day a week. Ms Greenfield was entitled to the statutory minimum holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998 of 5.6 weeks. Therefore Ms Greenfield's holiday entitlement whilst working this one day a week working pattern was 5.6 days.
In July 2012, Ms Greenfield took seven days of paid annual leave, thereby ostensibly exhausting her annual entitlement.
However, from August 2012, Ms Greenfield's working pattern increased to 12 days on and 2 days off. She requested further leave in November 2012 but this was refused by CBL on the basis that she had exhausted her entitlement for the year.
Ms Greenfield brought a claim to the Employment Tribunal for an allowance in lieu of leave not taken. Ms Greenfield argued that as her working pattern was now full-time she should be entitled to 28 days of annual leave rather than the 5.6 days given to her by CBL. The ET initially held in her favour but revoked its Judgment following a request for reconsideration by CBL and referred the matter to the ECJ.
ECJ's Decision
The ECJ confirmed a number of principles for dealing with the calculation of holiday entitlement where part-time employees increase their hours part way through a leave year:
Best Practice
The decision is not particularly surprising and provides a sensible and intuitively fair approach to the calculation of the holiday entitlement of part-time employees.
It is also a reminder that particular care needs to be taken when calculating the entitlements of part-time staff. Bank holidays and in particular the question of whether part-time staff should receive time off if they don't work on the days on which bank holidays fall have historically caused issues.
The appropriate approach to this will depend on whether the employer offers the statutory minimum holiday of 5.6 weeks inclusive of bank holidays or offers a contractual enhancement to this entitlement. Employers should however always bear in mind their obligation not to treat part-time workers less favourably than comparable full-time workers.