New Law Journal quotes Michael Powner on the landmark judgment on underpaid holiday claims
min readThe landmark judgment, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland v Agnew [2023] UKSC 33, means thousands of police staff in Northern Ireland can claim up to 35 years' worth of miscalculated holiday pay.
Michael Powner, Partner, provides comment on the significance of the judgment for New Law Journal:
"In upholding the decision, they have confirmed that in a “series” of unlawful deductions from wages claim for holiday pay (a “series” being where there have been consistent underpayments when holiday was taken), a gap of more than three months between deductions does not break the series, allowing more back payments to be recovered.
"This overturns the position in Great Britain and extends backpay liability for under/unpaid holiday. While this significantly increases the potential cost of historical pay claims in Northern, the impact in Great Britain is slightly less as backpay is already limited to two years, whereas there is no equivalent ”back stop” provision in Northern Ireland."
Read the full article in New Law Journal here.
