From 2019 you will no longer be able to pay casual workers a fixed fee.

Over the summer, staff from HR have been working with departments to review the use of fixed fees for casual workers (or employees) being paid through the payroll. Thank you to everyone who has engaged with this process.

Background

As we have discussed with departments, where fees are paid there is no systematic documentation of the hourly rates used, the number of hours worked and the holiday pay paid, meaning we do not meet a number of legislative requirements:

  • Holiday pay: an employer cannot include an amount for holiday pay in the hourly rate (this is known as 'rolled-up holiday pay'). If a current arrangement still includes rolled-up pay, it needs to be split out into the component parts or re-negotiated
  • Itemised Pay Statement Order 2018: from April 2019 all staff paid on an hourly basis must have the hours and rate shown on the payslip
  • National minimum wage: an employer is required to maintain records of the hours worked and the rate paid so they can show compliance with National Minimum Wage legislation
  • Equal pay: when fixed fees are used there is often no way to know how the amount was calculated, meaning we are unable to understand if all workers/employees are being paid consistently for the work of the same value

What is changing?

Workers claiming payment from January 2019 will only be able to claim using the timesheet or expenses options. We have sought to prepare departments for this by meeting with users of fixed fee arrangements in recent months and seeking to resolve outstanding queries.

In practice, there have been very few claims for fixed fees since August, having explored these on a case-by-case basis with departments.

What should I do?

Departments should only offer casual work on the basis of an hourly rate. Rates are listed at https://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/browse/pay-and-grading/hourly-rates. If you cannot see the rate you need, contact us at rewards-team@york.ac.uk.

Many departments will already have sent out internal communications about the changes. Please share confirmation of this change with hiring managers in your department.

Is this related to the new system for managing casual workers?

You may be aware that one of the aims of the Casual Worker Compliance Project is the introduction of a new system to support the registration, booking and payment of casual workers. We have experienced some delays in this process and are not yet in a position to implement the new system. However, the University still needs to ensure compliance with both existing and incoming legislation, which is why we are making these changes to the current process.