Holiday Pay (Franchises)

Gareth78

Hi all,

My mum works as a sales assistant at a well know fuel filling station franchise.

The problem that she has is that because the turnover of franchisees is so great (she has had 4 managers in the past year alone) she is not getting any holiday pay, with each manager saying they "can't afford" to pay it.

She has not had a paid holiday since October last year and asked for this week off - paid -which the current franchisee refused. It seems that the managers do not keep records of entitlement because they know they are not going to be there for long and therefore can "pass the buck" to the next manager.

Where does my mother stand from a legal standpoint? Who is responsible for keeping records of her entitlement? The "company" or the "franchisee".

She has taken this week off unpaid as her boss was happy for her to have the time off but not to pay her for it. This has obviously upset her - she loves working at the filling station, it keeps her busy and gives her some spending money but after nearly 10 years she is thinking of packing it all in because of this.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you may have.

getmore4less

When did she start,

Is there a holiday policy.

Get the grievence policy and invoke it.

Any new owner should take on the liabilities this includes staff holiday

Gareth78

Thanks for the reply.

She has worked for "the company" for 9 years give or take and for the vast majority of that time (7.5 ish years) it was for the same franchisee. She has a contract which states that she is entitled to four weeks paid holiday per year from that original franchisee which her area manager says "should" still be in force. It is the frequent changes in ownership that have thrown up the problems with owners changing every 4 or 5 months on average and passing the buck each time.

getmore4less

Statutory holiday is now 5.6 weeks.

With 9 years service if there is continutity of employment so it would be 9 weeks notice and 9 weeks redundancy and an unfare dismisal claim if they tried to get rid for payment of holiday pay(a statutory right).

Do they have experience employing people?
A gentle reminder to the new owner might help

Check out the franchise agreements there may be clauses there which the owner must comply with.

ACAS & CAB might be the next move.

Gareth78

Thanks getmore4less.

I'll tell her to remind her new manager of his responsibilities as an employer and see where we get. I'll post later on in the week to let you know the outcome. Hopefully he'll realise that he is in the wrong and make things right.

paulwf

Gareth78 wrote: »

Where does my mother stand from a legal standpoint? Who is responsible for keeping records of her entitlement? The "company" or the "franchisee".

Franchise agreements vary so check with head office but it is 99% certain that you are employed by the franchisee not the parent company. Your mum would have most likely been protected by TUPE regulations when transferring from her old employer to the new one. I'm not an expert on TUPE but a quick google suggests that either Company A should have paid accrued holiday when they sold the business or Company B is now responsible for all accrued holiday including that whilst staff were employed by Company A.

My advice would be to read up on TUPE and contact ACAS before you approach the employer. Take print outs if that is easier to state your case. 5.6 weeks holiday is a large amount of pay so you need to stand up for your rights. Any franchisee should know about TUPE, they're trying it on.