Flexi holiday-pay plan

The building and civil engineering industries' B&CE benefits company is to develop what it describes as a fully flexible credits system to fit in with the new holiday pay requirements of the Working Time Regulations. The intention is that the system will come into operation by next April.

The regulations require employers to pay workers the equivalent rate for holidays as a normal working week. Workers are entitled to three weeks' pay at such rates. This will be extended to four weeks next autumn.

Where earnings fluctuate, the average pay for the previous 12 weeks' employment is used to calculate the holiday pay. Non-contractual overtime and allowances are not included in the calculation.

In addition, the regulations stipulate that when an operative leaves his employer he can demand that he should be paid in lieu of any unclaimed holiday.

A meeting of the B&CE company has considered how these demands can fit in with the existing nationally negotiated, standard holiday pay arrangements.

Various options were considered. They included leaving employers to establish their own arrangements to top-up holiday pay to 'normal' levels.

Other possibilities comprised a tiered system of credit values, and a weekly collection of a percentage of the operative's earnings.

The company recommended that a fully flexible system should be developed.