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Ambulance Workers' Holiday Pay - Voluntary Overtime Inclusion

on Wednesday, 08 August 2018.

There are various types of overtime arrangements in places, and practices differ between employers. We examine the recent case of Flowers v East of England Ambulance Trust.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) determined, in the case of Flowers v East of England Ambulance Trust, that voluntary overtime paid over a sufficient period should be taken into account when calculating pay due to an employee during their annual leave.

The Facts

In this case, all of the claimant were employed by the Trust in a range of roles concerned with the provision of ambulance services. They all had normal working hours, in addition to which they could work two different types of overtime:

  • overtime that was required when a shift overruns (i.e. if their shift ends during an emergency)
  • voluntary overtime that the workers could choose to do when it was offered (i.e. additional shifts planned in advance)

The claimants pursued a claim for unlawful deductions from wages claims in relation to how the trust had calculated their holiday pay during periods of annual leave. It was claimed that the claimant's paid annual leave should include amounts received during periods of non-guaranteed overtime and voluntary overtime.

The Employment Tribunal held that although the Trust needed to include non-guaranteed overtime for shift overruns in the workers’ holiday pay, voluntary overtime shouldn't be included because there was no obligation on staff to accept the overtime. The claimants appealed and the Respondent cross-appealed the decision.

The EAT allowed the claimants’ appeal on each basis and dismissed the Respondent’s cross-appeal. The EAT considered whether the calculation of holiday pay should take into account the overtime falling within both the categories outlined above.

The EAT held there to be no basis to distinguish between non-guaranteed and voluntary overtime as both types of overtime were linked to the employment contract. The question to consider was if the overtime was part of the worker's "normal" remuneration. In these circumstances both elements of overtime fell within the definition of "normal" remuneration.

Best Practice

There has been a significant number of cases relating to the calculation of holiday pay in recent times. For shift workers, holiday pay is usually calculated by working out the average number of hours worked in the previous 12 weeks at their average hourly rate.

Employers whose workers are required to regularly work overtime, for example after their shift has ended in order to finish off work on emergency or other matters, are likely to need to include overtime payments made to workers for that overtime when calculating their holiday pay entitlement.

When voluntary overtime is worked, an employer will need to consider whether the nature and frequency of the overtime worked could amount to normal remuneration, and consider taking it into account when calculating the payment due during periods of annual leave.


For more information, please contact Gemma Cawthray in the Employment Law team on 0117 314 5266.

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