UK holiday rules for irregular hours and part‑year workers changed from 1 April 2024. Statutory holiday entitlement now accrues as 12.07% of actual hours worked in each pay period. Sage HR supports this calculation through irregular hours policies.
What counts as an irregular or part‑year worker
The UK government defines these worker types as follows.
Irregular hours worker - A worker whose paid hours vary wholly or mostly in each pay period during the contract year
Part‑year worker - A worker who works only part of the year, with unpaid periods of at least one week, even if they have fixed hours
For full definitions and examples, the UK government guidance.
How holiday accrues
For irregular and part‑year workers, holiday entitlement accrues as:
12.07% of actual hours worked per pay period
Sage HR rounds the allowance to the nearest hour, in line with government guidance.
Set up irregular workers in Sage HR
To calculate entitlement correctly, you must:
Mark employees as irregular hours workers
Use an irregular hours time off policy
Don’t use a standard policy based on working patterns or fixed hours.
📎NOTE: These options are only available for UK Sage HR companies.
If you don’t use Timesheets
If you use Leave Management or Sage HR Essentials (UK):
Set up time off in Sage HR
Assign irregular workers to the policy.
Allocate their time off by entering their worked hours in the employee profile.
If you use Leave Management and Timesheets
If you use Leave Management and Timesheets:
Set up both modules:
Create an irregular hours policy based on timesheets.
Assign irregular workers to the policy.
Approve timesheets.
Allocate their time off by calculating hours in the employee profile based on the populated timesheets hours.