Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether staff on zero-hours contracts are entitled to annual leave.

All workers, including workers on zero-hour contracts are entitled to receive paid annual leave.

In 2017, the Unpaid Britain report found that 1.8 million workers are missing out on £1.8 billion each year, in unpaid holiday leave.

The Government wants to ensure that all workers, regardless of the hours they work, receive the paid time off they deserve. This is why the Government recently ran the ‘It comes with the job’ advertising campaign encouraging workers to understand their rights and employers to understand their legal obligations. Government has also developed new guidance, available on GOV.UK, to help workers and employers understand holiday pay policy and entitlement. Both the campaign, and the guidance were aimed at atypical workers, which includes workers on zero hours contracts. To aid those at risk of not receiving their holiday entitlement, the Government has also committed to introducing state enforcement of holiday pay for vulnerable workers.