The ECJ has opened the way to higher holiday pay for workers on commission, says Charles Pigott
Having spent over 10 years grappling with entitlement to statutory holiday pay, the courts are now turning their attention to how it is calculated. The latest development is the decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Lock v British Gas Trading Limited C-539-12 , which was published just in time for the late spring bank holiday.
The story so far
Lock is a reference made by the Leicester employment tribunal in late 2012 about the interpretation of Art 7 of the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC, which establishes entitlement to four weeks’ paid annual leave across the EU. Around 60% of Mr Lock’s pay came from sales-based commission, but his holiday pay was based on his basic salary alone. As there was some time lag between closing the sales and receiving the commission they generated, Lock was not so much complaining about receiving too little pay when he was on holiday, but his inability to generate new sales while on holiday, which depressed his earnings
