How many days holidays per year is the law for UK workers?

hoffmeister

Would just like a little more info on the matter after quickly discussing it in another thread.

My friend works for a bakery in which I hear horror stories from, but one thing that I would like to chase up amongst many other things is holiday entitlement.

My friend takes one week holidays (5 days) every 3 months, so that equals 20 days holiday per year. He gets no bank holidays off unless its Christmas day, he also gets no extra pay or lieu days for working bank holidays.

The company has totally walked all over my friend but he just wants the quiet life and its the first job he has been able to hang onto for more than a year. Myself and the rest of this board would not take what happens to him at all in his job, from the stories I have heard, its not far off a sweatshop in a 3rd world country.

getmore4less

Hoilday is in weeks not days.

5.6 weeks is the legal minimum.

A week is capped at 5 days. so 28 days is the normal minimum.

Different shift patterns/part time attract different number of days upto 28 days.


There is no right to bank holidays or time off or extra pay.

hoffmeister

Well my mate works from 6am till 2,3 or 4pm depending how much work is on that day. It is a bakery and he also doesnt get a dinner break or even enforced breaks, they go in at 6am and get to go home as soon as they have baked all of their orders which is a MINIMUM of 2pm finish (8 hours without dinner break). He surely must be getting cheated by only getting 20 days per year off, or am I wrong?

Mudd14

How many days per week does he work? Does he get bank holidays off in addition to the 20?

Breaks is a worry as he would be entitled to 20 mins unpaid for ashift over 6 hours providing he is an adult

LittleVoice

Mudd14 wrote: »

How many days per week does he work? Suggestion in the first post is that a week is 5 days as that is what constitutes one week's holiday. Does he get bank holidays off in addition to the 20? The answer, in the first post, is that he doesn't get bank holidays except for Christmas.

Breaks is a worry as he would be entitled to 20 mins unpaid for ashift over 6 hours providing he is an adult

It may be that the 20 days is that the holiday entitlement has not been changed in line with the increases over the years since the statutory entitlement was introduced. Originally it was 3 weeks (15 days) and then went up to 4 weeks (20 days). Then the allowance of 1.6 weeks (8 days - equivalent to the bank holidays) were added in two equal tranches.

skibadee

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10034642

hoffmeister

Thanks for the help guys.

He works 5 days per week and has been working there for nearly 2 years. His hours vary but are always more than 40 hours per week, as I said he starts at 6am and works till all of the orders are produced/baked which is normally till 2pm, sometimes on busier days till 3 or 4pm. He never gets bank holidays off, he does not get paid extra for bank holidays or get time in lieu.

He simply takes 5 days (one week) holiday every 3 months. He went away a few weeks ago and his boss just gave him an unpaid holiday rather than a holiday. He gets no breaks and certainly gets no dinner breaks. He did dispute the fact of getting no break's when he first joined as he was exhausted, they said that they wont stop him from taking breaks, despite the company not enforcing them or making clear when breaks are allowed. Also the management just sell the fact, the quicker you get the work done, the quicker you get to go home.

The only holiday's he got last year were as I said, one week's holiday every 3 months.

The company in question have so many other faults that are probably ilegal too.

My friend puts his head down for the easy life, but I cant believe what goes on in that so called company.

getmore4less

working 5 days per week needs 28 days minimum holiday.

So the holiday is short hand needs sorting.

Breaks look ok if they say you can take them

Now you have not said but it looks like he is salaried rather than hourly paid not that it makes a diffence just needs to watch for the hours overrunning to make the rate below minimum wage.

there is a saying pick your battles.

Forget the other issues focus on the holidays easy to prove.

hoffmeister

getmore4less wrote: »

working 5 days per week needs 28 days minimum holiday.

So the holiday is short hand needs sorting.

Breaks look ok if they say you can take them

Now you have not said but it looks like he is salaried rather than hourly paid not that it makes a diffence just needs to watch for the hours overrunning to make the rate below minimum wage.

there is a saying pick your battles.

Forget the other issues focus on the holidays easy to prove.

Cheers, much appreciated. Seems to look like he is losing 8 days per year holiday.

One of the many problems this company has is what you alluded too, and that is how he is paid. They simply turn up and work from 6am till when they get the work done, there is no clocking off cards or a timesheet that employee's fill in. When my friend finishes at 2:30pm, there is no way of telling if he was paid only till 2pm, I get a real feeling that this happens on a daily basis.

When I question my friend he doesnt want to talk about it because although he knows deep down that he is being peed on, he just doesnt want to course a fuss because he is that kind of character.

If someone was working undercover in that place then I am sure they would have a big lawsuit on their case within 2 weeks.

HappyMJ

hoffmeister wrote: »

Thanks for the help guys.

He works 5 days per week and has been working there for nearly 2 years. His hours vary but are always more than 40 hours per week, as I said he starts at 6am and works till all of the orders are produced/baked which is normally till 2pm, sometimes on busier days till 3 or 4pm. He never gets bank holidays off, he does not get paid extra for bank holidays or get time in lieu.

He simply takes 5 days (one week) holiday every 3 months. He went away a few weeks ago and his boss just gave him an unpaid holiday rather than a holiday. He gets no breaks and certainly gets no dinner breaks. He did dispute the fact of getting no break's when he first joined as he was exhausted, they said that they wont stop him from taking breaks, despite the company not enforcing them or making clear when breaks are allowed. Also the management just sell the fact, the quicker you get the work done, the quicker you get to go home.

The only holiday's he got last year were as I said, one week's holiday every 3 months.

The company in question have so many other faults that are probably ilegal too.

My friend puts his head down for the easy life, but I cant believe what goes on in that so called company.

If the work takes 8 hours then it takes 8 hours so the sooner he does it yes the sooner he gets to go home. It is an unpaid dinner break so if wants to take an hour off in the middle and they aren't stopping him then take it but he'll have to stay an hour longer at the end so finishing at 3pm every day.

He needs to work out how many days he's taken as holiday so far and how many are due. It's 5.6 weeks per year including the bank holidays but as he's working them he should be taking a weeks break a little more often than every 3 months.

LittleVoice

HappyMJ wrote: »

It's 5.6 weeks per year including the bank holidays . . ..

It's best not to think of the 5.6 weeks as "including the bank holidays". The statutory 5.6 weeks does not in fact include the bank holidays.

As I mentioned in post #5, the amount of statutory holiday was increased by an amount equivalent to the 8 bank holidays.

hoffmeister's friend has to work bank holidays normally so his holiday entitlement does not include the bank holidays, his entitlement is to 5.6 weeks (28 days).

He also needs to check when the holiday year runs from - eg from 1 January or 1 April or some other fixed date for the company. If there isn't one then it is from the anniversary of his own start date with the organisation.