How does it work inside IR35 with respect to holidays, overtime etc

**northernladuk** · 26 May 2024, 10:46

Originally posted by etl View Post

1. In almost all my outside IR35 roles I was allowed overtime. Can't see any clause about this in Inside contract. Is this a complete no-no when it comes to inside roles?

If you had overtime then your roles weren't really outside. Overtime is a perm constuct, not a contractor one, well an outside one anyway.
You generally won't find overtime clauses in a contract. You are on a daily rate, generally a professional working day and that's that. Any overtime needs to be negotiated in and discussed with the client manager when you are in. Dunno what you do but a vast majority of contract's won't have it. You do some longer days, some shorter ones and mix it up. They'll have a day rate set with the agent-->umbrella and that's that. You'll have to discuss it when you get there.
Will depend on what you do as a skill and what the work you will be doing is.

2. Seems like all calculations and expectations are for the the inside person to take annual leave and statutory holidays. When I was outside I didn't take any holidays, worked even bank holidays and Christmas and new years. Only took 2 weeks off during a year , but used to recoup these by working weekends. Wondering as an inside IR35 of a big corporation it is expected of me to take annual leave and bank holidays etc?

Yes. You are an employee of an umbrella and as an employee you will have a set number of holidays to take. Your umbrella can deduct holiday pay and pay it when you are off or you can claim it back at the end. Some will just pay you the full amount and you just don't get paid when you are off. Plenty of resources around discussing holidays. You might still be able to work days in lieu to cover days off but that's at the discretion of you manager. If you are still confused discuss it with your umbrella who are your employer.

When you were outside you were a LTD company doing what you want, you weren't constrained by employment law and the like. Now you are inside you will have to go through and umbrella and classed as an employee so employment law, different tax system kicks in. Don't compare what you did as an outside to inside contractor. They are completely different.

**hobnob** · 26 May 2024, 12:15

You can't do overtime just because you feel like it, but there might be times when you need to work outside normal hours (e.g. doing server upgrades at a weekend). In that situation, I normally either claim for an extra half/full day on my timesheet or I just have a short day later in the week to even it out. Either way, I'll be paid the same rate that I get normally, whereas the permies might be on time and a half.

Likewise, the client would normally expect you to take bank holidays off. They might also insist that you take time off (unpaid) at particular times of year, e.g. a two week furlough over Christmas/New Year.

In terms of holiday, that's really between you and the umbrella rather than you and the client (since the umbrella is your employer). Technically it's the umbrella's responsibility to make sure that you take the statutory amount of annual leave, but in practice they might not bother. Bear in mind that it runs through the financial year (April to April), and it's pro rata. E.g. if you start your new contract at the beginning of June, that will only be 10 months (at most) rather than 12, so you'd be looking at 23 days rather than 28 days.