BBC Admits Working Time Error

14-10-2005

About 11,000 BBC employees received back pay they did not expect in their September pay packets, after the corporation discovered it may have unwittingly been in breach of the Working Time Directive.

The BBC decided to pay up after a staff member stumbled across the fact that for the past seven years it has not been calculating holiday pay properly. It has been reported that some staff have gained as much as £3,000 to £4,000 on top of their normal pay.

Holiday pay had been calculated based on basic salary only, but the rules in the 2003 Working Time Directive say that if an individual's normal weekly pay includes additional payments for unsocial hours, the holiday pay must also include these.

It is making a retrospective payment to all affected staff, taking into account all night shift, Christmas and "extra responsibility reward" payments going back to October 1998, when the corresponding amendments to the Working Time Directive were introduced.

The BBC said: "Although this is a technical matter relating to the application of the working time regulations, the BBC is, of course, required to meet its legal obligations."

The episode raises the question of how many other employers may be short-changing staff, either deliberately or because they are not aware of the regulations.

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