The Court of Appeal has confirmed a previous EAT decision which held that payments for voluntary overtime, if ‘normal’, should be included in holiday pay for the four-week EU minimum holiday period.

The Court of Appeal said the tribunal must decide whether the pattern of work is ‘sufficiently regular and settled’ for payments made in respect of it to amount to normal remuneration.

The Court of Appeal decision is East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust v Flowers www.bailii.org, which confirmed the EAT decision in Dudley MBC v Willetts.

The court considered the EU position even though, on the facts, the ambulance service workers were held to have a contractual entitlement to have voluntary overtime taken into account in calculating holiday pay.

More: Paid holiday under Working Time Regulations>Amount of holiday pay.