Redundancy & Annual Leave

lady1964

Hi All,
I've had a quick look and can't find anything about my question, apologies if this has already been asked/answered and I didn't look hard enough
I'm being made redundant at the end of July and we've all been told we have to work out the annual leave we're entitled to and that we have to use it by the end of July.
I've worked mine out and by deducting off the days I've already got booked as a/leave, this leaves me 7.25 days.
As I'm taking a week this month (left over from last years' leave), I've booked some time at the end of April, then I've booked a week at the end of July, so in effect I will finish at work on 22 July rather than the 29th. There aren't big gaps between each lot of leave booked and I really don't want to take these 7.25 days between March and July. For me, I would see them as wasted days and as I'm only getting statutory redundancy, the extra days' pay would be very welcome.
Our guidelines state that it is at the discretion of our line manager but only extenuating circumstances for not taking leave, such as mat leave, will allow us to get our owed leave paid.
Does anyone know the legal stance on this? Is there one?
Many thanks
Lady1964

silverjay

I think the general official guideline these days is "use it or lose it". There was a change in employment rules last year which brought in a "you cannot be paid for holidays not taken. This applies to all employment not just redundancy situations.

lady1964

silverjay wrote: »

I think the general official guideline these days is "use it or lose it". There was a change in employment rules last year which brought in a "you cannot be paid for holidays not taken. This applies to all employment not just redundancy situations.

Thanks, that's what I was fearing.

Maybe I should look at making it work in my best interests then, and looking at when it would be best for me to take it rather than suiting my employer. I do though have my individual one to one session next week where I will raise this issue and see what they say.

Thanks again
Lady1964

paddedjohn

As far as im aware, you can be paid any holidays owed to you if you leave or are made reduntant, but the company can make you take them whenever they wish before they finish you if its in your contract.

scaramanga2011

OK... having a mild panic attack here. My business, education, means we have to take our holiday outside of term times as a rule. This is usually during summer holidays - it turns out I'm being made redundant at the end of term (June)... are you guys saying that I'm not entitled to the leave that I will have accumulated since September?

Wood.Justin

I always thought that if you were leaving part way through the year, your holiday entitlements would be pro-rata. For example:

Joe Bloggs, is entitled to 25 days per year annual leave. He leaves in August and has taken 5 days annual leave. To work out his pro-rata you would take the annual leave entitlement and divide by 12 then multiply by 8 months = 16.67 days. Thus leaving JB entitled to a repayment for any holiday outstanding of 11.67 days.

You may wish to speak with your HR department, they'll have your specific contractual T&C's.

getmore4less

scaramanga2011 wrote: »

OK... having a mild panic attack here. My business, education, means we have to take our holiday outside of term times as a rule. This is usually during summer holidays - it turns out I'm being made redundant at the end of term (June)... are you guys saying that I'm not entitled to the leave that I will have accumulated since September?

You will have to look at your contract.

For term time situations it can get a bit messy depending how the holidays and pay have been done.

But any accrued but untaken holiday should be paid, once you work out how holiday is calculated.

scaramanga2011

Thankyou to all for your responses. I would like to think my leave wouldn't be blocked and that it should be pro-rata, which softens the blow a little. For a moment there I felt that I'd worked all year for nothing thanks to some sneaky change in the law.

OK - now to find another job - mortgages don't pay themselves - unless anyone knows any different!?

lady1964

As an update to my original question, we had our one to one consultations 2 weeks ago and I asked about my leave and getting it paid if I've not taken it.
The answer I got was that as I've already got 8 days booked between now and the end of July, which is spread over 2 seperate bookings, and with looking at it on an operational basis, it's quite likely that I'll be able to get whatever I'm left with, paid. This will be at the discretion of my line manager and of course based on operational need but as it's likely that people will leave before we shut down and obviously they won't be replaced, there won't be the staffing capacity for many people to take leave. Of course if people want to take their leave, then it'll likely be allowed, and we'll have to manage by whatever means, but it came across that those of us who don't mind not taking leave, will cover for those who will take leave and get any outstanding leave paid.
Lady1964