Holiday pay new rules - your thought

Opinions on new holiday pay

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Reading through the new legislation on holiday pay. We have clients who have monthly paid staff who just give us hours. In practice who is going to look back over 52 weeks time sheets to work out an average where holiday is taken mid month. Clients won't have this information but I know they should. Payroll software works on periods paid. I think it is a big mistake changing the percentage accrual but understand why this changed. Calculating for zero hour contract staff  will be problematic as what constitutes a days pay.  What are your thoughts on the new rules and the guidance

 

 

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RLI
By lionofludesch
03rd May 2020 16:11

I think most employers will find it unworkable.

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By SXGuy
03rd May 2020 16:21

Well what I did was create a spreadsheet and added the gross pay for each period. Then used a formula to work out average pay over previous 52 weeks. Wasn't hard, and can be updated every pay period :)

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By RichPort
03rd May 2020 20:04

In my opinion payroll software packages are going to have to integrate these calculations, capturing the required data in real time to allow them to do so.

Zero Hour contracts and associated holiday pay has always been an area where popular providers have struggled and in my experience it has led to a lot of spreadsheet calculations (unreliable and prone to error) and sub-par packages that can charge a fortune for solutions that aren't up to standard.

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Replying to RichPort:
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By SXGuy
03rd May 2020 20:20

That may well be possible with software like moneysoft but I can think of a few payroll softwares where once you have closed off the year and did a final backup the new year has no access to last year's data.

And the software companies should have already implemented such an ability since the changes have already come in to affect and you'd need quite a few weeks from last year to calculate the average. Waiting till April 21 isn't good enough for an update.

I don't see how an in house spreadsheet is prone to errors if you actually know what you are doing and can back up the resulting calculation from comparing it to a manual calculation method.

The only error would be on the part of the user inputing the wrong data. Not a spreadsheet fault.

And if accountants or payroll providers are relying on software to calculate stoppages then they need to stop and actually train in manual pay tables. You can't just blindly trust the software has it right or you are no better than an error in a spreadsheet.

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Replying to SXGuy:
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By RichPort
04th May 2020 00:22

I appreciate your thoughts on this, and agree that the access to last years data would be problematic, however I do maintain that payroll software providers need to do more to support businesses with zero hour contract employees especially given the change in holiday pay in recent years.

A spreadsheet is as good as the data input and calculations embedded within, and yes a perfectly build spreadsheet with perfect information will give the correct answer. My thinking here was a business processing thousands of staff on weekly payroll with deadlines to meet week in week out need robust tools with controls built in to ensure accuracy. Spreadsheets are just not the answer here.

With regards manual pay tables, I fail to see the relevance, this thread is about holiday pay entitlement and manual pay tables won't help you with that (unless I am mistaken and I too need training! You will have to forgive me though, I won't be reading the 32 pages of guidance tonight!)

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By airgeadagam
03rd May 2020 23:58

What a palaver. Cannae be bothered, life's too short.

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RLI
By lionofludesch
04th May 2020 04:18

Employers won't know about this.

Employees won't know about this.

Nobody will police this even if asked.

It's pointless legislation.

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RLI
By lionofludesch
04th May 2020 04:19

Duplicate

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By zebaa
04th May 2020 10:57

Where it may be important is when employment ends and the subsequent debate about final pay. Not all employment ends well...

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