Colin Foote, Director - Employment & Equality Law
A recent employmenttribunal case called Lock v British Gas went all the way to the European Courtof Justice (ECJ) to find out if UK employers should take commission paymentsinto account when calculating holiday pay.
This case was broughtto an employment tribunal by Mr Lock, a salesman at British Gas. He went awayon holiday and was only paid his basic salary with no commission whilst he wasaway. His employer thought that as he was not earning commission, they did notneed to pay commission, just his basic salary.
When the EmploymentTribunal in the UK could not decide on the outcome of this case, they referredit to the ECJ for a decision.
The ECJ said that MrLock’s commission was linked to the work he completed and even though theamount of commission he earned each month was different, it formed a regularpart of his wages and should be paid as part of his holiday pay.
So this seemsstraightforward enough for you as an employee – you should expect any payment,that is directly linked to the work you do, even if this fluctuates month onmonth, to be included in any holiday pay you receive.
This is not the endof the story on the Lock case though, as the ECJ has referred the case back tothe Employment Tribunal in the UK to decide how to apply its ruling inconjunction with existing holiday pay laws. You can follow me on Twitter @cfsullivanslaw to stay in the loop.
If you are strugglingto get the money you are owed in backdated holiday pay or if you have not beenpaid your commission, talk to a specialist employment lawyer today about youroptions.
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