The Supreme Court has granted the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling that regular voluntary overtime should be included in Working Time Directive holiday pay. The Supreme Court will also look at the second part of the Court of Appeal’s ruling that the claimants had a contractual entitlement to have voluntary overtime taken into account for the purposes of calculating holiday pay in accordance with the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook.
We have previously considered the issues raised in the Court of Appeal ruling which held that in interpreting the NHS collective agreement, which deals with annual leave and public holidays, voluntary overtime was part of normal remuneration for the purposes of calculating holiday pay and should be included in holiday pay calculations. There was no distinction for holiday pay purposes between voluntary overtime and “non-guaranteed overtime” where an employee had to stay after the end of a shift to finish a part-completed service. You can read more about the Court of Appeal decision here.
The decision will be in the interests of all NHS employees, along with any other employers who currently do not include voluntary overtime in holiday pay calculations.
