Taking on summer labourers without a holiday pay bill or a right-to-work fine later

Written for gardeners and garden maintenance rounds, landscapers, grounds maintenance contractors, tree surgeons and arborists, lawn treatment, fencing and paving firms, including winter hedge, tree and gritting work, in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The short version

1. Check right to work before day one.Do it for everyone, whatever the label, including individual subcontractors. Keep the evidence and recheck time-limited permission before it expires.
2. Build holiday into every hour worked.Irregular-hours and part-year staff earn holiday at 12.07% of hours worked, or get it in each wage, shown separately on payslips (As of Oct 2026).
3. Give owed holiday as paid time off.Cash instead of holiday is allowed only when someone leaves, so a mid-season lump sum does not clear what you owe.

Landscaping takes people on in March and lets them go in the autumn. Short, irregular engagements are where holiday goes unpaid, right-to-work checks get skipped and people get called self-employed when they are not. Each of those becomes a bill later.

Employee, worker or self-employed?

The whole working relationship decides status, not the label you use or whether someone is CIS registered. Someone who works your rounds, in your van, with your mower, to your hours points strongly to a worker or employee, though those facts alone do not settle it. Use HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool for tax status where it fits, and take employment law advice if rights are disputed.

Holiday for irregular hours and part-year staff

Now take a typical job gone wrong: a labourer has worked irregular hours since March and has had no holiday. On £14,560 of wages they have accrued leave worth £1,757.39. Let them take it as paid leave at their normal rate, then from the next pay period either keep accruing or roll it up on each payslip, and take advice on the arrears.

Payment in lieu is allowed only when the worker leaves, so a lump sum while they still work for you does not clear the arrears.

Right to work, now including individual subcontractors

Check every worker before they start: in person with original documents, by an online share code, or through an identity service provider for British and Irish passports. Recheck time-limited permission before it expires. If an agency offers labourers who are 'self-employed, no checks needed', do not accept the label: work out who engages each person, do the prescribed check before work starts and keep the evidence.

No visa route for landscapers

The Seasonal Worker route covers horticulture (edible and ornamental crops) and poultry, not landscaping or gardening services. Since 22 July 2025 the Skilled Worker route needs roles at RQF level 6, and gardeners and landscape gardeners are not on the Temporary Shortage List, so new sponsorship for them is closed. Workers sponsored before that date may extend under transitional rules. As of Oct 2026.

Asked in Greymill

Ask it about your own business

Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Staff & HR works it through for your business.

More for landscaping and gardening in the UK

• Pricing a crew hour and a year of maintenance visits so the rain days are paid forBuild your rate from what a productive hour really costs once holidays, weather and the van are counted, then price maintenance contracts from measured visit times.Read the lesson
• Getting through December to February when the grass stops and the tax bill landsLandscaping cash is lowest in the winter, just as Self Assessment falls due on 31 January, so size the gap and smooth your income before the season ends.Read the lesson
• Going over the VAT threshold, a developer's zero-rating and a builder's CIS: what goes on my invoice?Most landscaping is simply standard-rated, but a strong summer can take you over the VAT threshold, and work for builders and developers brings in zero-rating on new homes and the Construction Industry Scheme.Read the lesson
• Spraying weeds, carrying green waste, running red diesel and towing a digger: am I legal?Spraying, green waste, red diesel and towing each need a certificate, a registration or a check, most leave a record you are expected to keep, and fences, front drives and digging near a neighbour carry planning and notice rules.Read the lesson
• Quotes agreed in the client's garden, plant guarantees and long contracts: the terms that cost landscapers moneyA quote agreed at the client's home, an open-ended plant guarantee and a long contract priced flat can each cost you the profit on a job, and each has a fix.Read the lesson
• Winning more domestic rounds and council grounds contracts, and pricing the staff who come with a re-tenderDomestic rounds grow street by street on honest reviews, public and housing grounds work is won on paperwork as much as price, and a re-tender can hand you the outgoing contractor's staff.Read the lesson
• I've found a nest, knotweed or a protected tree halfway through the job: what now?Some discoveries turn a garden job into an offence the moment you carry on, and the law binds the contractor as well as the client; two safety stops apply to every tree and verge crew too.Read the lesson

Open the interactive lesson · Every landscaping and gardening lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade