Agencies and Holiday pay!!!

markygordon wrote: »

Hi,

Firstly apologies for the length of this post and I will not be offended if you get bored and stop reading!

I am quite confused and concerned about the holiday pay arrangement with my agency. Its impossible to get a straight answer out of them so I have no idea if they are just thick or acting in an underhand manner.

I started working in mid Feb and from the start they deducted "statutory holiday pay" from my weekly pay. This is then converted into accrued hours which I can apply to take as and when I want paid time off work. It is roughly 10% of my weekly wage which amounts to 4.53 hours per week.

Now, with the initial 3 month/12 week period over, to my understanding, I am now entitled to the same benefits as normal staff. When this time came i received an email with this:

"The Premium Rate (pre-deductions) applicable to this Assignment is 9.55000 Per Hour. This rate includes 36.00 days paid holiday inclusive of your pro-rata 28 days statutory leave entitlement per annum and any such additional assignment leave (if any) will be paid on a ‘rolled up’ basis during the Assignment. The statutory leave entitlement will be deducted through payroll and shall be paid in accordance with clause 7 of the Terms of Assignment of Temporary Workers."


My problem is that it appears I cannot take any holidays unless I have accrued them first. I have just received my pay slip for last week and as i didnt have enough hours in the "bank" I did not get paid for the jubilee bank holiday (even though i booked these days in advance). Does the "rolled up" basis mean that once i have accrued the holiday pay I will be paid for the hours i previously booked?

It seems to me that this is a grossly unfair and confusing practice.

Hope i have made this clear enough.

Can anybody advise me on this please?

Thanks

Mark