Agency Worker Holiday Rights UK: Pay and the 12-Week Rule

Yes. Agency workers have the same right as other workers to a minimum of 5.6 weeks' paid holiday each leave year, and it builds up from the first day of the assignment. Nobody has to wait 12 weeks before earning paid leave. For someone working a regular five-day week, 5.6 weeks is 28 days, and statutory paid holiday is capped at 28 days.

Holiday is normally paid by the agency. Under the Working Time Regulations, where an agency worker has no worker's contract with either party, the agency or hirer that is responsible for paying them for the work (or, failing that, whichever actually pays them) is treated as their employer for holiday purposes. In most arrangements that is the agency.

Day-one rights also include the National Minimum Wage, limits on working hours and rest breaks, and access to the hirer's shared facilities such as canteens and car parking.

Agency status does not decide the calculation; the working pattern does. A worker on regular hours gets 5.6 times their usual working week. A worker whose paid hours are wholly or mostly variable in each pay period is an irregular-hours worker, and someone contracted for only part of the year with gaps of at least a week unpaid is a part-year worker. Many agency workers fall into one of those groups.

For irregular-hours and part-year workers in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, holiday accrues at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in each pay period. Round to the nearest hour: half an hour or more rounds up. Bank holidays can be counted as part of the 5.6 weeks, so check whether the assignment terms give them on top.

Statutory holiday pay is a week's pay for each week of leave. Where hours or pay vary, the average is taken over the previous 52 weeks in which the worker was paid. Weeks with no pay are skipped and the period goes back further, up to a maximum of 104 weeks. A worker with fewer than 52 paid weeks uses the full weeks they have worked.

Holiday pay is normally paid when the leave is taken. Do not reduce the daily or hourly holiday rate just because someone is an agency worker; the same holiday pay rules apply to them as to other workers.

Rolled-up holiday pay means adding holiday pay to every payslip instead of paying it when leave is taken. It is lawful only for irregular-hours and part-year workers, and only in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. It is not allowed for regular-hours workers.

Where it is used, the holiday payment is 12.07% of the worker's total pay for the pay period and must be shown as a separate item on each payslip. The employer should tell workers it is using this method. The worker still has the right to take time off; the leave is simply unpaid at the time because it was paid in advance.

If an agency is rolling up holiday pay for someone on fixed, regular hours, or the holiday amount is hidden inside a single hourly rate, that does not meet the rules.

Once an agency worker has worked 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, they are entitled to equal treatment: the same basic working and employment conditions as if the hirer had recruited them directly. In practice that applies from week 13.

Equal treatment covers pay, working time, night work, rest periods, rest breaks and annual leave. If the hirer gives direct staff more than the statutory minimum, the agency worker gets the same amount of holiday and holiday pay. Acas says holiday above the statutory minimum can be added to the entitlement, paid on top of the hourly or daily rate and itemised on each payslip, or paid in one go at the end of the assignment.

Pay for equal treatment includes basic pay, overtime, shift and unsocial hours allowances, commission and individual performance bonuses. It excludes occupational sick pay, redundancy pay, pensions and expenses. Since 6 April 2020, contracts that paid agency workers between assignments in place of equal pay are no longer valid.

Any calendar week in which the worker does some work in the role counts as a full week. The weeks do not need to be consecutive, but some breaks pause the count and others restart it. Weeks that pause the count are not added to the total, but earlier weeks are kept.

A new role with the same hirer only restarts the count if it is substantively different, such as different work, skills, pay rate, location or hours, and the agency has told the worker in writing.

Agencies and hirers must not structure assignments to stop a worker reaching the qualifying period. The factors considered include the length and number of assignments, the number of new roles, returns to the same role and the length of breaks.

Where the most likely explanation for the pattern is to prevent equal treatment, the worker is treated as having completed the 12 weeks when they otherwise would have.

The usual booking rules apply. A worker should give notice at least twice the length of the holiday they want. Acas says agencies can refuse a request but must allow the holiday to be taken at another date. An employer can also require leave on set dates, such as a Christmas shutdown, with notice at least twice the length of the leave.

There is no right to choose particular weeks, such as the whole of the school summer holidays. A long gap can matter for the qualifying period: a break of more than 6 weeks between assignments with the same hirer restarts the 12-week count, whereas weeks of paid annual leave only pause it.

The agency and hirer share the work. If equal treatment is not given, each is liable to the extent it is responsible. The agency has a defence if it obtained, or took reasonable steps to obtain, the hirer's terms for comparable staff and acted reasonably on them; any liability it avoids that way falls to the hirer.

From 6 April 2026, employers must keep detailed annual leave and holiday pay records for at least six years. The Fair Work Agency, established on 7 April 2026, is taking on enforcement of rights such as holiday pay.

Agency workers have the right to be paid for holiday they have built up but not taken when they leave the agency, the same as other workers. This applies even if they were dismissed for gross misconduct. Ending one assignment with the agency still offering work is not the same as leaving, so check the records for the leave year.

If holiday pay is not resolved, the worker can contact the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100 and must notify Acas for early conciliation before most tribunal claims. From 1 October 2026, the time limit for most claims increased from 3 months to 6 months, though the 3-month limit might still apply where the problem started before then.