University of East Anglia cleans up its overtime payments

More than 100 cleaners at the University of East Anglia are looking forward to a boost in their March pay cheques after UNISON secured them thousands of pounds in missed holiday pay.

Some staff will receive as much £300 after UNISON raised a grievance over the Norwich university’s failure to include regularly worked overtime in its calculation of holiday pay.

Court rulings over the last few years mean employers must include regularly paid overtime, commission or bonuses in their holiday pay calculations so that workers are not financially worse off when they take a break but many companies have been slow to start paying the right amount.

UNISON branch secretary Amanda Chenery-Howes said: “This is fantastic news for some of the lowest-paid staff at UEA, who got together in UNISON to win improvements.

“Staff were being wrongly denied the full salary they’d earnt but by standing together they won.

“UNISON always stands up for fairness at work so we’ll be on the lookout for any other UEA departments where staff aren’t getting their full holiday pay entitlement.”