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Supreme Court gives NHS trust permission to appeal voluntary overtime and holiday pay ruling

The Supreme Court has given the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust permission to appeal from the Court of Appeal’s ruling that voluntary overtime needed to be included in the calculation of holiday pay for its workers.

In East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust v Flowers & Ors [2019] EWCA Civ 947 the Court of Appeal ruled that:

  1. Regular voluntary overtime should be included in Working Time Directive holiday pay.
  2. Under "Agenda for Change" (the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook) the claimants had a contractual entitlement to have voluntary overtime taken into account for the purposes of calculating holiday pay.

Mills & Reeve, which represents the employers in the litigation, said on its HR Law Live blog that both aspects of the Court of Appeal’s ruling would be considered by the Supreme Court.

It added: “[The Supreme Court’s] decision, which is not expected for at least several months, will be of interest to all NHS employers, as well as other employers who do not currently include voluntary overtime in their holiday pay calculations.”

See also: Regular voluntary overtime and holiday pay by Joanne Bell and Nick Chronias.

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