Do agency workers get paid holiday? Yes, from day one: how much, and how it is paid

4 minute read · Updated 2026-10-12

Yes. An agency worker is a worker, and almost every worker in the UK is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, from the first day of work. For somebody working five days a week that is 28 days. It does not depend on how long you have been with the agency, and an agency cannot contract out of it.

1. Who pays it

The agency (or the umbrella company, if you are paid through one) runs your payroll, so it is the one that pays your holiday. The company where you actually work, the hirer, does not pay you directly.

2. How it builds up when your hours change every week

If your hours are irregular, or you only work part of the year, holiday for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 can be worked out as 12.07% of the hours you actually work in each pay period. Work 40 hours and you earn just under 5 hours of paid holiday.

3. Rolled up holiday pay

For irregular hours and part year workers, the law now allows holiday pay to be added to every payslip instead of being paid when you take the time off. If that is how you are paid, it must be shown as a separate line on your payslip. If it is buried in the hourly rate with no separate line, ask the agency to show you how it is calculated.

4. What changes after 12 weeks

Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, after 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer you are entitled to the same basic conditions as somebody hired directly, and that includes holiday. If the hirer's own staff get more than the legal minimum, you should too from then on.

5. Your holiday pay is not optional

• You can ask to take holiday, and the agency can tell you when, but it cannot simply refuse to let you take any.
• Holiday you have built up and not taken is paid when the assignment or the job ends.
• Check your key information document: the agency must give you one before you start, and it has to explain how you are paid, including holiday.

6. If it is not paid

1. Ask the agency in writing, with your payslips and the dates.
2. Call Acas for free advice on 0300 123 1100.
3. Report an agency that will not pay to the Fair Work Agency.
4. A tribunal claim usually has to start within three months less one day, and Acas early conciliation comes first.

Working out what an hourly agency rate leaves you with after tax and holiday? Try our take home pay calculator, and read your rights in temporary work.

General information, not legal advice, checked October 2026.

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