Holidays



Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave (under Regulation 13, as amended). Unions have won a series of legal victories since the regulations came into force to ensure that as many workers as possible are entitled to paid leave.



The BECTU broadcasting and entertainment union challenged the restriction of paid holiday entitlement to workers who have worked for the same employer for 13 weeks continuously, which adversely affected temporary and agency workers (R v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry ex parte BECTU [2001] IRLR 559). The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the 13-week qualifying period was unlawful and the regulations were amended by the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2001 (SI 2001 No.3256).



Building workers won an important victory in a tribunal claim for the right to paid holidays. The workers successfully argued that, despite being classed as self-employed by their employers, there was enough of a contractual relationship between the parties to show that they were “workers”. This meant that they were protected by the WTR, and in particular were entitled to paid holidays (Byrne Bros v Baird [2002] IRLR 96).



The right to paid holidays under the Working Time Directive is an important EU social right, from which there can be “no derogation” (KHS AG v Winfried Schulte Case C-214/10). In other words, national law is not allowed to cut down the statutory right to paid holidays, or make it too difficult for the worker to enforce their rights in a tribunal. The basis of the right is that workers’ health and safety must be protected through adequate rest.