FSB says holiday pay ruling leaves many questions unanswered

REACTING to a far-reaching ruling from the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), David Knowles Leak, FSB’s Thames Valley Regional Chairman said: “Today’s ruling leaves many questions unanswered. It has the potential to be very damaging to small businesses, presenting a real risk of small firms being forced to close down if faced by retrospective claims.

Image courtesy of personeltoday.com

“Clearly it would be desperately unjust to expect businesses to pay retrospective compensation for how they calculated holiday pay when they were fully compliant with the law as it was understood at the time.

“The FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) has been appointed to a Government task force to examine this issue and will be fighting hard for small businesses to be insulated from the uncertainty and legal risks this ruling brings.”

A recent survey of FSB members found that a third of small businesses with employees (31 per cent) paid staff for voluntary overtime. One in 10 (11 per cent) of small firms with staff also offered some form of commission.”