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APA holiday pay: what the 12.07% means
The short answer. The APA terms give crew the equivalent of 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, bank holidays included, worked out as 12.07% of the hours you work, rounded up to the nearest hour. They then say your payments already include a payment in lieu of it. So on an APA job, holiday pay is inside what you are paid, not a line added on top.
Holiday pay on a commercial is usually the thing nobody mentions. Under the APA terms there is a reason for that: on their wording, it has already been paid. The clause is short, and it answers fewer questions than people tend to expect of it.
What does the clause say?
Clause 10 of the APA Recommended Terms for Engaging Crew on the Production of Commercials, effective 1 September 2026, says three things:
- A crew member is entitled to the equivalent of 5.6 weeks' paid holiday in each holiday year, including all bank holiday entitlements, worked out pro rata to the hours they actually work.
- That entitlement is equivalent to 12.07% of the hours worked, rounded up to the nearest hour.
- The crew member's payments include a payment in lieu of that 12.07% entitlement.
The wording did not change in the September 2026 edition of the terms.
What does 12.07% of hours mean?
It is a measure of time, not money. Work 50 hours on a job and 12.07% of that is just over six hours, which the clause rounds up to seven. That is the holiday entitlement from those hours, expressed in hours.
The clause does not turn those hours into a separate sum, and on its own wording it does not need to, because of the sentence that follows.
Is holiday pay included in the day rate?
On the terms' own wording, yes. The crew member's payments include a payment in lieu of the entitlement, so what you are paid under the terms already carries it. The rate card in Appendix 1 has no holiday pay column, and nothing in the terms adds a holiday pay line to a day or an invoice.
What the terms do not do is show how much of a day rate that payment is. There is no split anywhere in the document, so there is no way to read it off the rate card.
Is this the same as working a bank holiday?
No. The 5.6 weeks includes bank holiday entitlements, meaning paid time off. Working on a bank holiday is a separate matter, covered by clause 2.4 of the terms: a bank holiday shoot day is paid like a Sunday. The weekend and bank holiday rates article has those figures.
Where do the terms stop?
Several things people ask about holiday pay are not in the clause:
- It does not define the holiday year it refers to.
- It does not say who keeps count of the hours, or how the entitlement is recorded across jobs.
- It does not say how much of your pay is the payment in lieu.
- It draws no distinction between crew engaged in different ways. Elsewhere the terms talk about crew the production contracts with directly and about invoices from crew, but the holiday clause is written for every crew member alike.
This article does not cover employment status or tax, which the terms do not address either.
How does scripted TV compare?
If you also work in long form, the Pact and Bectu agreement for scripted TV, effective 1 January 2023, deals with holiday at more length:
- Workers directly engaged as workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid leave a year, pro rata to the length of the contract and inclusive of bank holidays.
- The producer can nominate days on which you take paid leave, bank holidays included, and deduct them from your entitlement. Workers on Band 4 productions cannot be asked to take paid leave on a UK bank holiday.
- Leave not taken by the end of the contract is paid at your basic daily rate for the days and part days owed. Leave taken beyond your entitlement can be recovered at the same rate.
- Where a worker on a daily contract, or a series of them, accrues holiday under the Working Time Regulations, it always takes the form of a payment in lieu.
The published Pact and Bectu rate card for lighting technicians on scripted TV, from December 2024, states that its rates include holiday pay. The major motion picture terms for film deal with bank holidays but carry no clause on annual holiday. We have not been able to confirm the scripted TV agreement's status since 1 January 2026, when its minimum term ended.
What we built
TimeMachine does not add holiday pay to an APA day or invoice, because the terms say it is already in what you are paid. The long form mode works the same way: it deals in gross figures and never adds holiday pay on top of the rate you enter. Where it shows a published reference rate beside your rate, it says whether that figure includes holiday pay.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA), Pact or Bectu. It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms and the Pact and Bectu agreements as a reference only. TimeMachine's long form mode is in beta. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.