In brief
- Two sets of amendments to the holiday-related provisions of the Working Time Regulations came into effect during lockdown.
- These changes intertwine with some novel questions about holiday entitlement for workers furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
- In the meantime, the courts continue to grapple with some long-standing issues about the calculation of holiday pay.
Paradoxically in this far from typical holiday season, questions about entitlement to holidays and how holiday pay is calculated have rarely been more prominent.
Carrying forward leave
The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/365) (the 2020 Regulations) came into effect on 26 March, three days after the national lockdown started.
The 2020 Regulations amend reg 13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) (WTR 1998), which provides for the core four week entitlement to annual leave deriving from the Working Time Directive (now consolidated as Directive 2003/88/EC) (WTD). This leave cannot normally be carried forward into the next leave year (different