Worker Wins Right to Holiday Pay

The London Central Employment Tribunal has ruled that a bicycle courier for ground transport organisation Excel is a worker, and is therefore entitled to holiday pay. Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). An employer can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave.

Bicycle courier Andrew Boxer contended that he was employed by Excel as a worker rather than as an independent contractor, and was therefore entitled to workers’ rights, such as holiday pay. Boxer, who had been working for Excel since September 2013, was seeking payment for a weeks’ holiday that he took in March 2016.

The Employment Tribunal found that Boxer was a worker for Excel and that the organisation had acted unlawfully by denying him holiday pay. Excel, which entered voluntary liquidation and has since been acquired by CitySprint, has been ordered to pay Boxer £321.16 in holiday pay without deductions.