In May 2014, the European Court of Justice clarified that if workers are paid commission as part of their remuneration, commission must be included when calculating holiday pay (see Lock v British Gas).
This was confirmed by the Employment Tribunal (ET) during a two day hearing in February this year. However, the ET decision did not provide a definition of “commission” or an approach which should be followed by employers when calculating holiday pay. In light of the uncertainty created by the lack of clear guidance, employers were left to balance the commercial risks and decide whether to include commission in holiday pay calculations or wait for the outcome of Lock’s appeal, which is scheduled for December this year.
Easyjet has now become the first airline to agree to compensate its cabin crew for holiday pay underpayments resulting from not including commission in the calculations for annual leave. Any holiday pay owed to eligible staff will be backdated for a period of 2 years.
Adrian, a highly experienced lawyer, founded Lawspeed in 1997. He is responsible for developing our extensive portfolio of products and services, including the widely used Lawspeed contract templates. Adrian is an expert on “recruitment law” and specialises in contracts, regulatory compliance, employment status and dispute handling. He is chair of the trade body the Association of Recruitment Consultancies, the only lawyer lead recruitment trade body in the UK. Adrian and his co-director Ravi devised Standards in Recruitment as a vehicle for helping drive up standards and compliance in the industry.
Adrian is our lead in discussions with the government over regulatory evolution. Apart from assisting with client support, Adrian’s primary role is research and development into methods of business delivery, our latest service Proterms being his most recent project. Adrian heads our IR35 lawyers team.