Holiday entitlement and pay changes for irregular and part-year workers

In summary, the Harpur Trust v Brazel ruling confirmed that workers on permanent contracts were entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday per year, regardless of the number of hours, days or weeks they worked, calculated using the calendar week method, by taking the workers average weekly pay from 52 working weeks prior to the leave and discounting any weeks that they did not work.

The result of the ruling was that workers who have weeks in the year where they do not work (term-time-only workers / other part-year workers and casual workers / zero hours workers / irregular hours workers) were entitled to receive a greater statutory minimum holiday entitlement when compared to part-time workers who work the same number of hours consistently across the year. In short, employers could not pro-rata holiday entitlement for employees working fewer than 52 weeks a year.  

The ruling meant that for these workers, their holiday entitlement accrual rate (hours worked to hours holiday) was higher than 12.07%. This is the holiday accrual rate of a full-time (52 week) worker receiving the statutory minimum entitlement to leave of 5.6 weeks and is calculated by taking the maximum number of working weeks in a year of 46.4 (52 weeks minus 5.6 holiday weeks) and calculating 5.6 holiday weeks as a percentage of this (12.07%).

The decision gave rise to a problem for employers who calculated holiday on a pro rata basis for casual workers and term-time-only workers (using the percentage method, e.g. 12.07% or similar) as, depending on the holiday entitlement given to workers, employers may not have been providing these workers with the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday entitlement.

For more detail on Harpur see our FAQs published in September 2022, for schools, or for other employers. 

Statutory minimum holiday entitlement for irregular hours workers and part-year workers is 12.07% of the number of hours that they have worked during that pay period and accrues on the last day of each pay period, up to a maximum of 28 days leave per year (Note: holiday entitlement is calculated differently while a worker is on sick leave or statutory leave – see below).

This means that workers falling within the definition of irregular hours workers and part-year workers, are entitled, as a statutory minimum, to receive the pro rata equivalent of 5.6 weeks of holiday entitlement, which is the statutory minimum holiday entitlement of a full-time worker, based on the hours they work, and employers can calculate their holiday entitlement by reference to a percentage (the accrual method) at the end of the pay period.  

All other workers not falling within the definition of irregular hours workers and part-year workers (workers doing regular hours which includes full-time and part-time workers, or workers on casual contracts but doing regular hours) continue to be entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday.

The change is significant since it aligns holiday entitlement with the practice of many employers prior to Harpur, which was to calculate entitlement on a proportionate basis to full-time workers using 12.07%.

In relation to term-time only (TTO) staff, schools and colleges are already likely to be providing their TTO staff holiday entitlement of 12.07% (including those who adopted a wait and see approach following Harpur) and many schools and colleges will be providing staff holiday in excess of the 12.07% (e.g. those schools following the Green Book).

One way employers can check the entitlement they are providing their staff is by converting entitlement to a percentage of hours worked. Please read on for consideration of TTO staff falling within the Regulations and further information on holiday pay and what you should do now.

Points to note:

• Holiday entitlement accrues on the last day of each pay period. 
• The amount of holiday accrued in a particular case is rounded up or down to the nearest hour (a fraction of an hour is treated as zero if it is less than 30 minutes and one hour if it is 30 minutes or more).
• Holiday entitlement during sick or statutory leave is calculated differently (see below).

The regulations only apply to irregular hours workers and part-year workers with both being new definitions including new terms.

Irregular hours worker:

a worker is an irregular hours worker, in relation to a leave year, if the number of paid hours that they will work in each pay period during the term of their contract in that year is, under the terms of their contract, wholly or mostly variable;

Irregular hours workers are likely to include casual or zero hours workers, if their contract indicates their hours are wholly or mostly variable in every pay period. For schools and colleges, exam invigilators are likely to be considered irregular hours workers.

Wholly or mostly is not defined by the Regulations and by way of example it is not clear whether a worker whose contract stipulates a guaranteed number of minimum hours would be considered an irregular hours worker; our view is that the inclusion of mostly indicates that a worker with guaranteed minimum hours could be an irregular hours worker if 50% of their hours are variable.

The definition refers to the terms of their contract. Accordingly, employers should review contracts to check they reflect the practical reality of the arrangement. In relation to irregular hours workers, if a worker’s contract indicates their hours in every pay period are mostly variable but in reality their hours are wholly or mostly regular, the worker may seek to argue they are not an irregular hours worker and that through custom and practice their regular hours are a term of their contract. Note, even if they do this, if their hours are actually regular, the risk of any difference in entitlement may be small as the regular hours will mean their accrual rate may be similar to 12.07%, although if the Regulations do not apply an employer’s method of calculating and paying holiday may be subject to challenge.

Part-year worker:

a worker is a part-year worker, in relation to a leave year, if, under the terms of their contract, they are required to work only part of that year and there are periods within that year (during the term of the contract) of at least a week which they are not required to work and for which they are not paid.

Any period of sick or statutory leave in the relevant leave year where a worker does not work is ignored for the purpose of defining a part-year worker.

TTO staff are likely to fall within the definition of a part-year worker as they tend to have periods of at least a week which they are not required to work and for which they are not paid. As the definition refers to the terms of their contract, the contract does need to be clear that they are part-year as, if it is not, the worker may not fall within the definition of a part-year worker.

Non-statutory guidance (the Guidance), was published on 1 January 2024. The Guidance gives examples of irregular hours workers and part-year workers. Unhelpfully, it gives an example which could be interpreted to indicate that because TTO staff are paid in 12-monthly instalments, they would not be considered part-year workers.

We think the Guidance is wrong (because the Regulations take primacy over the non-statutory Guidance, and the intention of Parliament, noting the context of Harpur and the consultation, was to ensure that holiday entitlement for workers is proportionate to the time they spend working) and we are in contact with the Department for Business and Trade to seek a revision and clarification to the non-statutory Guidance.

In response to our letter, the Department for Business and Trade has removed the example of Ian used in the Holiday pay and entitlement reforms, non-statutory guidance published on 1 January 2024. The example of Ian could have been interpreted to indicate that because TTO staff are paid in 12-monthly instalments, they would not be considered part-year workers. Our view was that the example was incorrect, and we are pleased that the Department considered our letter and has decided to remove the example of Ian. This is good news for schools and colleges employing term-time only staff in particular.

For information on what to do now in relation to TTO staff, see below.

Workers that do not fall within the definitions of irregular hours worker or part-year worker will continue to be entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday. Accordingly, it is important that employers correctly identify workers, either as irregular hours worker, part-year worker or as neither, in which case they would fall outside of the Regulations.

The Regulations also deal also with holiday pay and provide two methods for calculating holiday pay.

Method 1: Rolled-up holiday pay

Rolled-up holiday pay (RHP) is the practice of paying holiday pay in addition to a worker’s hourly rate while the worker is working, rather than at the time of the holiday. Typically, RHP is paid by way of a 12.07% uplift (or some other percentage representing a full-time worker’s contractual holiday entitlement) to the worker’s remuneration for work done. RHP was previously considered unlawful since employers are required to encourage workers to take holiday, although in practice it was very commonly done, particularly for casual, zero hours and TTO staff.

While employers are still required to encourage workers to take holiday, and should do so, the Regulations make RHP lawful for irregular hours and part-year workers in leave years commencing on or after 1 April 2024. The Regulations state holiday pay may be paid by way of a 12.07% uplift to a worker’s remuneration for work done.

This means that for these workers, employers can include holiday pay in a worker’s pay calculated as a percentage of their remuneration based on the worker’s entitlement to holiday (which must be at least the statutory minimum of 12.07%).

For most employers, the percentage will be 12.07% being the statutory minimum, or if the contractual holiday entitlement for full-time staff is higher than the statutory minimum (e.g. in the case of schools following the Green Book), a higher percentage ensuring pay for workers who are not full-time is proportionate to that of full-time staff.

We have already helped employers, including schools and colleges, calculate the percentage to apply to part-year workers based on their full-time workers’ contractual holiday entitlement: this includes the different percentages applicable where staff are entitled to increased holiday based on years of service.

Schools using the example in the Green Book to calculate holiday pay can continue to do so; by way of explanation, the example given in the Green Book (at pages 184-186) uses an accrual rate based on days of 0.1551, for the purpose of the Regulations this accrual rate converts to 15.51%.

Many employers are already paying RHP to their workers that work irregular hours or are part-year,  it is therefore welcome that this can now be done lawfully.

An important note, remuneration includes regular overtime payments, commission payments and payments for professional or personal status, not just basic pay, and therefore employers need to ensure that when they are calculating statutory holiday pay, they include these payments in the amount subject to the uplift so the worker receives holiday pay on these payments.

In our experience with TTO staff, a large number of schools and colleges include holiday pay in the staff member’s salary by calculating salary as weeks worked plus holiday weeks and pay the salary in 12 equal monthly instalments. If you do this, you can continue to do so although you need to be aware of the need to top up holiday where a TTO member of staff does regular overtime or receives some other payment which must be factored into your calculation of holiday pay as set out above.

There is also a technical point to note in relation to TTO staff if they are paid in 12 equal monthly instalments: they may, for some pay periods, work more hours and therefore may receive less holiday pay than they are entitled to in that pay period.

We do not anticipate this being problematic since entitlement across a year will even this out, noting there may be some pay periods in which TTO staff are not working where they will receive more pay than hours worked and it is generally considered beneficial for TTO staff to be paid in 12 equal monthly instalments.

Points to note:

• If using RHP, it must be paid at the same time as the worker’s remuneration for work done.
• If using RHP and the worker receives regular overtime payments, commission payments, or payments for professional or personal status as part of their remuneration, these should be included in the remuneration subject to the uplift so the worker receives holiday pay on these payments.
• If using RHP, any itemised pay statement provided must indicate the amount of holiday pay that has been paid for the period to which the statement relates. 
• Although beyond the scope of this note, employers need to be aware of the need to continue to do a calculation to determine holiday entitlement during the first and last year of employment where the TTO worker joins or leaves part way through a leave year and to do a check and if necessary, a balance, to ensure they receive the correct holiday pay.

Method 2: 52 week reference period

Although we expect most employers to continue to use RHP or to start to, where RHP is not used, the alternative method which employers have the option of using for calculating holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers is, at the start of each period of holiday, to take their entitlement of 12.07% of the number of hours that they have worked during that pay period and multiply that by the hourly rate determined according to the formula A divided by B, where:

• A is the week’s pay (which includes regular overtime payments, commission payments, or payments for professional or personal status as well as basic pay).
• B is the average number of hours worked by the worker in each week used to calculate A.

A and B are calculated by using the last 52 weeks prior to the start of the holiday as a reference period.

If a worker has not been in employment for long enough to build up 52 complete weeks’ worth of pay data, the employer should use however many complete weeks of data they have in the 104 week period preceding the calculation date, or if the calculation date is not the last day of the week, the last complete week before the calculation date. Weeks where a worker was on sick or statutory leave for any amount of time and weeks where no remuneration was payable should not be used.

If employers currently use a 52 week reference period method, they should consider whether they wish to continue to do so, and whether it would be more straightforward to pay RHP.

If employers wish to continue using their 52 week reference period method, they can continue to do so. They should check their method against the method set out by the Regulations to ensure it is consistent and if it is not, whether their method could produce an underpayment in comparison with the Regulation method. If an employer’s method is not consistent, they should consider whether or not to amend their existing method.

The Guidance, available here, provides examples of calculating holiday pay using both methods. 

Holiday entitlement

The Regulations set out a different method of calculating holiday entitlement for irregular hours and part-year workers on statutory or sick leave (statutory leave includes maternity and family related leave). The Regulations do this because the 12.07% method cannot be used when a worker is not working.

Step 1: Calculate the average number of hours per week that the worker worked during the relevant period before the worker started the sick leave or statutory leave.

Step 2: Calculate 12.07% of the number of hours arrived at under Step 1 to find the number of hours of annual leave that the worker accrues during each week of the sick leave or statutory leave.

Step 3: Multiply that number of hours by the number of weeks in a pay period for which the worker is taking sick leave or statutory leave to find the number of hours of annual leave that the worker accrues during each such pay period.

‘Relevant period’ means the 52 week period ending with the day before the sick leave or statutory leave commenced, or a lesser period if the worker has been employed for less than 52 weeks in the preceding 104 weeks ending with the day before the day on which the sick leave or statutory leave commenced. Weeks where a worker was on sick or statutory leave for any amount of time should be disregarded, however, weeks where the worker was not required to work should be used and taken account of.

As explained below and with reference to RHP, if an employer, prior to the worker going on sick or statutory leave, pays RHP, this method of calculating holiday entitlement aligns with the method the Regulations set out for calculating RHP and employers should look at that method (see below) to calculate RHP.  

Notwithstanding the position in respect of RHP, for regular hours workers, including TTO staff in schools and colleges, the practical impact of this change to calculating holiday entitlement may be limited. For many schools and colleges, existing methods for calculating holiday entitlement while on sick or statutory leave are likely to produce at least the same minimum entitlement to holiday while on sick or statutory leave as this method since TTO staff have regular hours and many schools and colleges calculate entitlement by reference to the hours the worker would have worked had they not been on sick or statutory leave. Our analysis here is based on what we tend to see in schools and colleges and so, if an employer is unsure whether their existing method for calculating holiday entitlement produces at least the minimum entitlement to holiday while on sick or statutory leave, they should review it.

RHP

If a worker was paid RHP prior to going on sick or statutory leave, an employer should continue to pay holiday pay in each pay period during the sick or statutory leave equal to the average amount of holiday pay that the worker was paid for each pay period during the period of 52 weeks, ending with the day before the day on which the worker started the sick leave or statutory leave, or a lesser period if the worker has been paid RHP for less than 52 weeks.

For workers with regular hours, e.g. part-year TTO staff, the average amount the method produces will be consistent with the amount these workers receive each month when not on sick or statutory leave. So, while schools and colleges should check what they do, they are not likely to need to use the calculation in each pay period. An employer may need to do the calculation in each pay period if the worker does regular overtime.

Importantly, the Regulations state for RHP that while a worker is sick or on statutory leave, they are to be paid in each pay period during the period of sick or statutory leave. This means employers should continue to pay RHP during the sick or statutory leave including after a worker’s sick pay entitlement drops below full pay. We often see schools not doing this. 

The Regulations seek to codify case law on holiday carry-over for all workers, not just irregular hours and part-year workers. In doing so the Regulations effectively require employers to recognise workers’ rights to statutory holiday and payment for that holiday, give workers a reasonable opportunity to take their statutory holiday and inform workers that any leave not taken cannot be carried forward and will be lost.

The Regulations do use different wording not used in the case law, which is likely to have practical significance and be subject to interpretation, discussion of which is beyond the scope of this note.

Note that the Regulations apply to a worker’s statutory holiday entitlement and set out the statutory entitlement to carry-over. Employer policies can be more generous.

In light of these changes to carry-over, employers should review their contracts, policies and procedures to ensure they:

• Give workers a reasonable opportunity to take their statutory holiday and encourage them to do so. Schools and colleges tend to state workers must take holidays during closure periods. In light of the changes schools and colleges should check their contracts are clear on this. 
• Reflect statutory entitlement to carry-over.
• Confirm whether or not holiday entitlement can be carried over in any other circumstances and if so what circumstances. Policies should also cover off carry-over of contractual holiday. 

All workers from 1 January 2024

From 1 January 2024, workers have a statutory right to carry over statutory holiday entitlement as follows. Note, statutory holiday entitlement consists of 2 elements, basic leave of 4 weeks (also known as regulation 13 Working Time Directive (WTD) leave) and additional leave of 1.6 weeks (also known as regulation 13A leave). Day to day we do not differentiate, however, for the purpose of carry-over, different rules apply to each entitlement:

Carry-over in relation to Regulation 13 basic leave (4 weeks):

• Any untaken leave due to taking statutory leave (includes maternity and family related leave), to the following leave year. 
• Any untaken leave due to taking sick leave, for the period of 18 months from the end of the leave year in which the entitlement originally arose.
• Any untaken leave in a leave year where an employer fails to:
  • recognise a worker’s right to annual leave under this regulation or to payment for that leave;
  • give the worker a reasonable opportunity to take the leave to which the worker is entitled or encourage them to do so;
  • inform the worker that any leave not taken by the end of the leave year, which cannot be carried forward, will be lost.
    Such leave may be carried forward until the end of the first full leave year in which an employer does not fail to do the above.

Carry-over in relation to Regulation 13A additional leave (1.6 weeks):

• Any untaken leave due to taking statutory leave (includes maternity and family related leave), to the following leave year.  

Irregular hours and part-year workers from leave years commencing on or after 1 April 2024

Irregular hours and part-year workers have the same carry-over rights, albeit they are more generous. From leave years commencing on or after 1 April 2024, they can carry over all their statutory holiday entitlement (up to a maximum of 28 days / 5.6 weeks) in the way other workers can carry over their Regulation 13 basic leave (WTD leave) of 4 weeks.

This is because the Regulations do not differentiate between Regulation 13 basic leave of 4 weeks and Regulation 13A additional leave of 1.6 weeks; holiday entitlement for irregular and part-year workers is 12.07% of the number of hours that they have worked and 12.07% represents 5.6 weeks (4 weeks + 1.6 weeks).

The changes to entitlement and RHP for irregular hours and part-year workers apply to holiday leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. This means that if an employer’s holiday leave year commences on 1 April, the Regulations will apply from 1 April 2024. If the holiday leave year commences on 1 September, the Regulations will apply from 1 September 2024 and not before.

This means that irregular hours and part-year workers will be entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of holiday in accordance with Harpur until the first day of the holiday leave year commencing after 1 April 2024.

If irregular hours or part-year workers are not receiving the statutory minimum holiday entitlement, for example if an employer adopted a wait and see approach following Harpur, a worker’s time limit for bringing a claim will start to run (commence) on the first day of the new leave year, on or after 1 April 2024.

In the wait and see situations, because we are going to see the time limit for workers to bring a claim start to run, it is possible that we will see more pay claims. We have dealt with many pay claims on behalf of employers, including schools. If a claim or potential claim is received, employers should contact us and also see our FAQs published in September 2022 for schools, and for other employers.

The changes to carry-over of holiday apply on and after 1 January 2024 and as set out below apply to all workers not just irregular hours or part-year workers (although the Regulations on carry-over for these workers is different to other workers from 1 April 2024 onwards).

1. Are workers in or outside the Regulations and do you give workers a reasonable opportunity to take holiday?
   1. Review contractual arrangements and workers’ hours and assess which workers are irregular hours or part-year workers and within the Regulations, and which are not and fall outside of the Regulations:
      1. Contact Schools and colleges should pay particular attention to and review their casual and zero hours workers; this will include exam invigilators and peripatetic teachers. 
      2. Care settings should pay particular attention to casual and zero hours staff who in fact work regular hours. 
      3. You do not need to look at staff who are not on a permanent contract.
   2. For all workers, check that contract wording gives a worker a reasonable opportunity to take their statutory holiday. School and college contracts tend to state workers must take holidays during closure periods, which means staff have the opportunity to take holiday. Schools and colleges should check their contracts are clear on this.
   3. For the workers that the Regulations do not apply to, are they receiving at least the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday as per Harpur? If not, you could consider increasing entitlement or amending hours, so they are irregular hours workers, or part-year workers, or place them on fixed-term contracts.
   4. If your contract templates are unclear, review them to mitigate the risk of uncertainty in respect of new workers joining you. 
2. Holiday entitlement
   1. Even if you did not increase or top-up holiday entitlement following Harpur, your current holiday entitlement for irregular hours workers and part-year workers is likely to be at least 12.07% of hours worked. As many employers did increase or top-up holiday entitlement following Harpur, entitlement is likely to be higher than the statutory minimum and thus compliant. Although, if you are unsure you should check. You can check by converting your entitlement to a percentage of hours worked.
   2. If your holiday entitlement is higher, you may consider whether you wish to reduce entitlement for existing or new workers.          
      
      Existing workers – Most employers are likely to maintain holiday entitlement for existing workers, particularly schools and colleges in respect of TTO staff and in circumstances where schools and colleges are facing a recruitment and retention crisis. If you wish to reduce holiday entitlement, worker’s contracts should be reviewed to ascertain whether this would require a contractual change and agreement from the worker. If you follow the Green Book and top-up holiday to 5.6 weeks you may consider not continuing to do this although we would recommend seeking advice before taking this decision. Get in touch with us if you are considering reducing holiday entitlement for existing workers.          
      
      New workers - Employers may want to review contractual templates for workers joining them after the Regulations become applicable. For schools and colleges this may be more relevant for casual or zero hours staff since amendments to TTO staff may be unattractive for recruitment and relations with staff and unions. Consideration should also be given to national agreements, e.g. the Green Book for schools, and any applicable local agreements.
   3. You should review your approach to, any policy on, or any system in place to calculate, holiday entitlement for irregular hours and part-year workers while on statutory or sick leave and amend it if necessary. Note, for regular hours workers, including TTO staff in schools and colleges, your policy and approach are likely to produce at least the same minimum entitlement to holiday while on sick or statutory leave as the method in the Regulations since TTO staff have regular hours and many schools and colleges calculate entitlement by reference to the hours the worker would have worked had they not been on sick or statutory leave. Our analysis here is based on what we tend to see in schools and colleges and so if you are unsure whether your existing method for calculating holiday entitlement produces at least the minimum entitlement to holiday while on sick or statutory leave, you should review it.
3. Holiday pay
   1. If you are using RHP:
      1. Check the percentage uplift is at least 12.07%. 
      2. Ensure your approach applies the percentage uplift to regular overtime payments, commission payments and payments for professional or personal status, not just basic pay.
      3. For schools and colleges, this is likely to mean topping up holiday pay in the pay period regular overtime is worked.
      4. If a worker is on sick or statutory leave, apply the method set out in the Regulations (note the calculation is not likely to produce a different result for part-year TTO staff in schools and colleges doing regular hours, however, schools and colleges should check this).
      5. Ensure that you continue to pay RHP while a worker is sick or on statutory leave in each pay period during the period of sick or statutory leave, including where the worker’s sick pay drops below full pay. This may mean a change to school and college systems.
      6. Check pay statements indicate the amount of holiday pay that has been paid for the period to which the statement relates.
   2. If you are using the 52 week reference period:
      1. Consider whether you wish to continue to do this (which you can), or whether it would be more straightforward to pay RHP (it is likely to be). 
      2. If you wish to continue to use the 52 week reference period, check your method is in accordance with the Regulations, including that it takes into account regular overtime payments, commission payments and payments for professional or personal status, not just basic pay. 
      3. If your existing method is not the same as the Regulations, there is some risk of underpayment of holiday pay and so you should check whether your method produces at least the same amount of holiday pay as the calculation in the Regulations. If it does not produce at least the same amount of holiday pay you should amend your method, if it does, although the risk of underpayment is mitigated, you may still wish to consider amending your method. Whether you do or not depends on several factors.
4. Contracts        
   A summary of the points we have set out above in respect of contracts.          
   Review existing workers contracts and contract templates and consider making amendments in respect of whether:
   1. the wording is clear as to whether the worker is an irregular hours or part-year worker;
   2. the contract gives workers a reasonable opportunity to take their statutory holiday;
   3. holiday entitlement is at least the statutory minimum;
   4. any wording or calculation in respect of holiday pay is at least consistent with the Regulations, including in relation to regular overtime.

5. Policies, approaches and systems          
   In summary, review policies, approaches and systems and consider making amendments in respect of whether they:

   1. Set out and calculate holiday entitlement for irregular hours and part-year workers while on statutory or sick leave that is not less favourable than the Regulations.
   2. Set out and calculate holiday pay so as not to be less favourable than the Regulations.
   3. Give workers a reasonable opportunity to take their statutory holiday and encourage them to do so. Schools and colleges tend to do this as they state workers must take holidays during closure periods.
   4. Reflect statutory entitlement to carry-over.
   5. Confirm whether holiday entitlement can be carried over in any other circumstances and if so what circumstances. Policies should also cover off carry-over of contractual holiday. 

   Note: Any contractual changes to existing workers’ contracts are likely to require agreement and should be considered carefully in light of employee and, if relevant, union relations.

6. Communication
   1. Brief leaders and trustees.
   2. In most cases it will be sensible and appropriate to write to staff explaining the Regulations and, if appropriate, any changes to contracts, approaches and systems. Where you adopted a wait and see approach this is likely to be more necessary and appropriate. 
7. Pay claims
   1. If you adopted a wait and see approach, be prepared for pay claims relating to holiday pay for the period prior to the Regulations applying.
   2. If you receive notice of a claim or potential claim, contact us and see our FAQs published in September 2022 for schools, and for other employers.