Resignation & Holiday Hours - Where do I stand??

Rufff

Ok, so I need a little help here because I'm not sure where exactly I stand on this; I am going to be handing in my notice of resignation to my workplace soon due to the fact that I am moving to London and as of today I have 80+ hours built up in unused holiday hours and I thought that I would receive pay for this in my final payslip when I leave. I checked on DirectGov as well and it does say

"You also have the right to be paid for any untaken statutory holiday entitlement that you have accrued."

Here's where I'm a little unsure, after a good thorough read of my contract there's a sneaky little clause that says

"there will be no pay in lieu of holiday not taken"

and on another page DirectGov contradicts itself saying

"When you leave your job, you should get paid for any unused legal minimum holiday allowance (ie 4.8 weeks), although your contract may say that you lose untaken contractual holidays (ie anything over 4.8 weeks)."

Now if this is perfectly legal then just say because I guess I'll have to get over the fact its tough luck for me, BUT I feel this is unfair because my company has a very tight holiday approval process, which is partly why I have quite a lot unused. We have to submit any sort of holiday request several months in advance to have any chance of it being approved and even then it can be denied (e.g. I tried to book off 2 days in August this year so I could collect exam results, sort out uni place etc - I sent this request back at the beginning of May and it was denied) so I feel this has prevented me from being able to use the holiday I am entitled to, can I do anything? Thanks in advance

SarEl

Your company cannot refuse you leave to which you are entitled (overall) - but they can make you take it as part of your notice period. This is the "grey area" confusing you. If you have holiday outstanding, they must allow you to take it. They are obliged to pay for it if they refuse to allow it to be taken. Does that make sense now?

PasturesNew

"no pay in lieu of holiday not taken" means you can't get to the end of the working year and say "I didn't take all my holiday, can you pay me the money instead", so therefore not relevant to your situation.

When you leave, any unused hours should be converted into pay in your final salary.

The questions to explore would be:
- do you want to work all your notice, and have that money?
- do you want to work some of your notice and use all of your holiday time for the rest?

Then, when you hand your notice in, ask the relevant questions of your boss in clarification that you're doing the right thing as you understand it.

wuckfit

Just to add to SarEl's point. legally they have to either pay you for or make you take your accrued STATUTORY holidays, which is 4.8 weeks. If your contract entitles you to say 35 days per annum, this is 2.2 weeks more than the legal minimum and therefore CONTRACTUAL. This is the part you may legally lose. It doesn't matter what your employment contract says, your employer must still comply with the law. So "there will be no payment in lieu of holiday not taken" cannot be enforced if you've still got leave remaining up to the 4.8 weeks, because this would effectively be an unlawful deduction from wages, I think. (I hope somebody can confirm this particular point because I'm not 100% sure)

I suspect what will happen is they'll make you finish however many days you have left early and just pay you to the end of your notice period.

SarEl

wuckfit wrote: »

Just to add to SarEl's point. legally they have to either pay you for or make you take your accrued STATUTORY holidays, which is 4.8 weeks. If your contract entitles you to say 35 days per annum, this is 2.2 weeks more than the legal minimum and therefore CONTRACTUAL. This is the part you may legally lose. It doesn't matter what your employment contract says, your employer must still comply with the law. So "there will be no payment in lieu of holiday not taken" cannot be enforced if you've still got leave remaining up to the 4.8 weeks, because this would effectively be an unlawful deduction from wages, I think. (I hope somebody can confirm this particular point because I'm not 100% sure)

I suspect what will happen is they'll make you finish however many days you have left early and just pay you to the end of your notice period.

Not quite. If your contractual entitlement is more than the statutory minimum they must allow you to take it during your notice period or pay for it. If your contractual entitlement is MORE than your notice period, then they do not have to pay for anything above the statutory minimum. Although most employers would.

Rufff

Ah I get it now! Sorry about that I think I misunderstood and assumed the worst. Thanks you all for the quick reply and help :T

Savvy_Sue

I always think it's worth thinking about what you WANT to happen before you hand in your notice, eg if you want to be paid, then say "This is my month's notice, my last working day will be X, by that time I will be entitled to YY hours annual leave for which I would like to be paid. Please confirm this will be possible."

If you'd rather leave earlier, say "This is my month's notice, however I have accrued YY hours annual leave which I would like to take within that period, therefore my last working date will be Z, please confirm this will be possible."

If you write the first thing, they can say "No, take the leave during your notice period", and if you write the second they can say "No, we'll pay you for it." But at least if you've given it some thought you might get what you want.