Our friends over at Contractor Voice have unearthed another case where an umbrella has allegedly not paid holiday pay to their contractor(s). As well as implementing processes at scale in order to withhold holiday pay, the latest revelations centre around ‘gap pay’, an initiative which promises to pay contractors when they are not working. However, according to Contractor Voice, the restrictions on being able to claim gap pay were incredibly onerous – meaning that very few people would have claimed. Read their full article for more shocking details.
There are two important points that need to be made:
- Not all umbrellas seek to withhold holiday pay;
- It is probably not illegal to do so.
The ability for umbrellas to not pay holiday is likely to be written within the terms and conditions that contractors agreed to when joining that umbrella. There may be some sort of ‘use it or lose it’ condition of the holiday policy which means that if any untaken holiday pay hasn’t been claimed by a certain deadline then you lose the right to receive it.
So the fact that your end-client has paid for your holiday (as part of your daily rate) does not necessarily mean you will receive it.
We urge all contractors working through umbrellas to make sure they read all paperwork, and particularly ensure that you know how and when you will receive your holiday pay. Pay particular attention to any ‘holiday year’ and/or deadlines that you should be claiming your monies within.
Please don’t become the next victim who misses out on their hard earnt cash.
