The Claimants were seafarers who worked on a ferry sailing between Dover and Calais. Their statutory rights to paid annual leave were found in regulation 12 of The Merchant Shipping (Hours of Work) Regulations 2002. In any given year, the claimants each had a certain number of weeks during which they were rostered to work on the vessel, and a certain number of weeks during which they were on shore. Their terms and conditions accorded them contractual rights to paid annual leave which were less than their statutory rights. The principal issues raised by the appeal and cross-appeal were (a) whether the claimants only accrued leave entitlement when they were working, or throughout their periods of employment, both when they were working on the vessel and when they were on shore; and (b) whether they had received their full statutory pay in respect of the leave that they had both accrued and taken.

The EAT concluded that 1) the Claimants accrued leave entitlement throughout their employment, not only in periods when they were working on the vessel (The Harpur Trust v Brazel The ET had rightly concluded (which was not challenged on appeal) that, given the number of weeks in which each of them was not rostered on the vessel, the Claimants had
both been accorded their full statutory rights to take leave; 3) The Claimants had both been paid their full statutory pay in respect of the statutory annual leave that they had both accrued and been fully accorded, because they each received an annual salary in equal annual monthly instalments throughout the year.