Annual leave and overtime pay letter: England, Scotland and Wales

If you think you have not been paid correctly for your annual leave, you should approach your employer in the first instance. Please cut and paste the letter below and send it to your line manager.

(Employer name)
(Employer address)

Dear (Employer),

I am writing to you because I am concerned that I have not received my correct holiday pay.

In 2014, in the case of Bear Scotland & Others v Fulton and others, the courts decided that all workers had the right to have non-contractual compulsory overtime taken into account when calculating holiday pay for the four weeks statutory annual leave granted by the European Working Time Directive.

In 2019, in the case of East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust v Flowers and Others, the courts decided that workers also have the right to have regular voluntary overtime taken into account when calculating their statutory annual leave pay.

You may not have been aware of the Flowers case or that it applies to me. I (was/have been) employed by you as a (job title) from (date) to (date) and during this period, I (worked/have worked) regular overtime (give details e.g. approximate no. of hours/weekly/monthly). I am therefore writing to bring this to your attention because I do not believe that all my overtime hours have been included when calculating my holiday pay.

I would be grateful if you would arrange for my holiday pay to be recalculated from (the beginning of my 2019 holiday year/employment start date if later) and for any underpayment to be paid to me.

Please respond to this letter within 14 days.  

Kind regards,

(Insert your name and contact details)