Music teacher’s battle over holiday pay reaches Supreme Court

Today (9 November), the Supreme Court will hear the ‘landmark’ case of Harpur Trust v Brazel, which could impact the holiday pay of thousands of term-time only staff.

Earlier this year, the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), whose legal team has been supporting the case throughout, ran a survey to collect data to help the court make a decision.

The survey found that 75 per cent of respondents were undertaking unpaid duties outside of term time.

Fighting for the same holiday pay rights as other workers, music teacher Lesley Brazel first contacted the ISM for help in 2013. 

Employed part-time in an independent school operated by the Harpur Trust, Brazel is paid for fluctuating hours depending on how many students require lessons.

As Brazel, like many other visiting music teachers, is not contracted to teach music lessons during school holiday, her employer worked out her holiday pay based on her term-time teaching hours. 

The ISM argues that there is no legal basis for reducing annual holiday entitlement in this way, and that it should be calculated in the same way as for any other worker (taking a week’s pay and multiplying by 5.6). 

This is being described as a ‘landmark’ case because the outcome could impact the holiday pay rights of thousands of others who work term-time only, like school catering staff and playground assistants. 

ISM chief executive Deborah Annetts said, ‘We’re privileged to have supported Mrs Brazel throughout her case. The ISM prides itself on doing its utmost to support our members and we hope that the Supreme Court will see the merits of Mrs Brazel’s case.

‘Their judgment could have an enormous impact on the holiday pay of music teachers and hundreds of thousands of others who work part-time or irregular hours. 

‘The crux of this case is about fairness. Music teachers are routinely expected to carry out many hours of extra unpaid work - during term-time and in the holidays - going way beyond the hours that are spent delivering each music lesson. They should have the same minimum entitlement of 5.6 weeks’ annual paid holiday as everybody else.’

The Supreme Court case can be found here.