I hate maths!

When my eldest son was quite young, his way of counting was 1 2 3 a lot!  Everyone else laughed, but I knew that he got his head for figures from me, especially when it comes to how many drinks I’ve had!

Which may explain why I chose law, rather than accountancy like my father and brother – you’d assume that in law, there isn’t much need for adding up.

However, it does still arise from time to time.

In disputes, we’re often calculating interest on late payments or damages.  These are usually quite straight forward, but can become more complicated if, for example, numerous invoices have been raised and/or numerous payments have been made, but if you know what you’re doing (as I do!) there is a way of doing that in one calculation!

If you are buying or selling (property, businesses etc) you have to do completion statements which also involve some calculations, but as I have wonderful colleagues that do it for me, I manage to avoid that one too!

Unfortunately, there is one area of law where calculations can become necessary that I can’t avoid, and that’s employment law – bet that surprised you.

What may surprise you even more is that it’s not about calculating the amount of money due to a claimant, but in relation to holiday pay and leave.

Thanks to the Working Time Directive, all employees are entitled to 28 days paid leave (pro rata) to include bank holidays.  If your holiday year runs from 1 January to 31 December and all of your staff work full time, then that’s a calculation that even I can do.

Where life becomes interesting (ie complicated) is if any of your staff work reduced hours or do any kind of flexible working.  This becomes more interesting (ie hard work) if your holiday year isn’t a calendar year, because bank holidays aren’t evenly split through the year.  Add in some part time staff who are often women, and we’re really going to have some fun, because if you get the calculations wrong to the disadvantage of the part time staff, you can add a claim for discrimination to the mix.

However, ever resourceful as I am, I have a way of dealing with this too!

Want to know the secret?

Count to three and then drop me a line – let’s catch up at the bar where I can show you the number of glasses of champagne I can drink before I fall over.

Kleyman & Co Solicitors.  The full service law firm.  It’s the solicitors that count.