With the summertime in full swing, you’ll probably see an upturn in the number of contractors taking a holiday.
You’ll also be aware that for each of your contractors that works via an umbrella provider, an element of the rate you pay to the umbrella is for holiday pay. When your contractor takes time off, they claim a portion or all of the holiday pay that has been accrued.
What happens when contractors don’t claim accrued holiday pay?
According to Professional Passport, a leading independent assessor of payroll compliance, a recent report stated,
“We’ve observed various reports of certain umbrella providers which have retained contractors’ holiday pay by relying on terms in their contracts which are either unread or misunderstood. These contractual arrangements make it clear that unused allowances will be lost if not taken, which, although it makes the practice legal, in our opinion is definitely not moral.”
So if your contractor doesn’t claim their holiday pay, the umbrella company gets to keep it.
What risks does lost holiday pay pose to agencies?
The risks are undoubtedly high.
Agency reputations rely heavily on the quality of services they provide to their clients and contractors. So, if your contractors are upset and unhappy because they feel they are losing out financially, including unclaimed holiday pay, you’ll often get associated with the blame.
If your contractor decides to take the issue directly to your client, your reputation and relationship with your client are also jeopardised.
Big Fish takes the risk out of Umbrella payroll.
Big Fish is a Professional Passport accredited business, and we do everything possible to ensure that your contractors get the holiday pay they are entitled to.
We remove the risks from umbrella payroll by putting our contractors’ and agency partners’ reputations and welfare at the heart of everything we do.
If you’re concerned that your umbrella providers aren’t paying your contractors their holiday pay, contact us for a confidential chat: