The Working Time Regulations 2024

What changed in April 2024

The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 — a long name for a piece of legislation that's now widely known as the “Working Time Regulations 2024” reforms — came into force for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. They are the most significant shake-up of UK holiday pay law in two decades.

The headline 5.6 weeks of annual leave for all workers is unchanged. What changed is how that entitlement is calculated and paid for the two groups whose working pattern doesn't fit the standard nine-to-five mould: irregular-hours workers (including most zero-hours contracts) and part-year workers (term-time-only staff, seasonal workers, summer casuals). For these two groups, the rules now centre on a simple accrual rate of 12.07% of hours worked and an option for the employer to pay holiday on a rolled-up basis with each payslip.

The reforms also brought back two things the courts had previously knocked down. Rolled-up holiday pay (illegal in the UK from 2006 onwards) is lawful again for irregular-hours and part-year workers. And the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel — which had given term-time-only staff the full 5.6 weeks regardless of weeks worked — was reversed for the same two groups.

The four worker types

The 2024 regulations split UK workers into four categories. The calculator on every page of this site asks which one you are because the rules diverge sharply at that point.

1. Regular full-time

Same hours, same days, every week. The default case. Holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks a year, which for a five-day worker is 28 days (the statutory cap). Holiday pay is normal pay continuing during the leave.

2. Regular part-time

Same hours every week but fewer than five days. The 5.6-week multiplier still applies, but a week is shorter — three days a week × 5.6 = 16.8 days a year. The statutory cap of 28 days only bites at five days a week and above. Bank holidays are pro-rated in one of two lawful ways depending on the contract.

3. Irregular hours

Paid hours under the contract are wholly or mostly variable from one pay period to the next. Most zero-hours contracts fall here, along with casual workers and bank staff. Entitlement accrues at 12.07% of hours worked. Holiday pay can be paid when leave is taken, or as a rolled-up 12.07% uplift on each payslip.

4. Part-year

Contracted to work only part of the year. School term-time staff are the classic case — they are paid throughout the year but actually work only in term weeks. Other examples: summer-season workers in tourism and Christmas casuals in retail. From April 2024 this group is treated the same as irregular-hours workers: 12.07% accrual on hours worked.

The 12.07% accrual rule

For irregular-hours and part-year workers, every hour worked accrues 0.1207 hours of paid leave. Add up the hours worked in a leave year, multiply by 0.1207, and that's the holiday hours owed.

The 12.07% comes from a simple ratio. The Working Time Regulations give 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year. A working year is 52 weeks long. So a worker is actually at work for 52 − 5.6 = 46.4 weeks. The leave-to-working-time ratio is 5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 0.1207 — which is what gets applied as a percentage to hours worked.

Over a full working year at constant hours, the 12.07% method produces exactly the same total leave as the 5.6-weeks-per-year rule. The difference is that 12.07% can be calculated and paid in real time on each pay period, which suits unpredictable work patterns much better than waiting until year-end.

Rolled-up holiday pay is back

Rolled-up holiday pay is the practice of paying the 12.07% uplift in each pay period rather than when leave is taken. The European Court of Justice ruled it incompatible with EU law in 2006 because it could discourage workers from actually taking time off — they'd already been paid, so why bother stopping work? UK courts followed suit and rolled-up pay became unlawful here.

The 2024 regulations bring rolled-up pay back, but with two conditions. First, it is lawful only for irregular-hours and part-year workers — regular workers must still have holiday pay paid when the holiday is taken. Second, the 12.07% uplift must be itemised separately on the payslip. A headline rate that silently includes the uplift does not satisfy the rule.

Workers paid on a rolled-up basis still have the right to take time off. The uplift covers the pay for that time when it's taken. Employers cannot use rolled-up pay as a way to deny leave.

The 52-week reference period

When a worker has variable pay — overtime, commission, fluctuating hours, shift premiums — holiday pay must reflect what they normally earn, not just their basic rate. The 2024 regulations consolidate the rule into a single method: look back at the previous 52 weeks of paid work and average the weekly pay.

Practical details:

• Only paid weeks count. Weeks with no work or no pay are skipped.
• The lookback extends up to 104 weeks if needed to find 52 paid weeks.
• If fewer than 52 paid weeks exist (e.g. a new starter), use what is available.
• Include basic pay, regular overtime, commission tied to performance, regular bonuses, travel time, and on-call payments. Exclude discretionary one-off bonuses and expense reimbursements.

The average produced becomes the weekly rate for holiday pay. For a worker taking a one-week holiday, that's straightforwardly the weekly figure. For partial weeks, divide by typical days or hours per week.

The Harpur Trust reversal

In 2022 the Supreme Court decided Harpur Trust v Brazel, a case about a part-time visiting music teacher employed only in term time. The court held that her statutory holiday entitlement was the full 5.6 weeks of her normal pay, undiluted by the fact that she only worked roughly 36 weeks a year. The decision applied to all part-year workers and gave them a substantial increase in paid leave.

The 2024 regulations explicitly reverse this for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. Part-year workers now accrue at 12.07% of hours worked just like irregular-hours workers, meaning their effective entitlement scales with the weeks they actually work rather than being inflated to a full-year equivalent.

For leave years that started before 1 April 2024, Harpur Trust still applies. If you have a leave year that straddles the change (for example, leave years aligned to a calendar year), there is a transitional question worth taking advice on.

Pre-2024 vs post-2024

Worked examples

What this means for you

If you're an employer

• Audit your workforce against the four worker types. Term-time staff in particular need to be re-classified.
• Update payslip templates to itemise rolled-up holiday pay separately if you adopt that approach.
• Review variable-pay calculations against the 52-week reference period rule.
• Issue updated written terms to anyone whose holiday calculation method changed.

If you're a worker

• Check your current entitlement using the calculator.
• If you're a term-time worker who started post-April 2024, expect your accrual to be lower than under Harpur Trust.
• Zero-hours workers — check that the 12.07% uplift appears on your payslip as a separate line.
• Any irregularities — contact ACAS on 0300 123 1100 for free guidance.