Can I pay staff for untaken annual leave?

getmore4less

There are ways round this for partime workers that can be flexable on when they work.

Easiest is for them to take holiday but make up the work with paid overtime on other days,

A bit tight this year if you have left it this late.

The change of holiday year is a good idea especialy with the bank holiday issues around an April holiday year, I would also change to a 28 days holiday contract, with allocated days for those that don't work BHs.

That avoids the extra BH issues when they throw in a special like that have this year and next.

Could be a generous boss and give a bit more every year.

Googlewhacker

lucylucky wrote: »

Why do you think that?

The WTR provides for staff to have a minimum number of days off.

I wasn't clear, I meant to opt out of holidays.

grannymay

Right, ok, so it's not legal for me to pay for excess holidays. Being a community interest company, I can't pay bonuses or dividends but I can probably get around it by drawing up an agreement for staff to sign, stating that 'as they worked hard helping with the setting up of the company in the first year and didn't take all their leave entitlement, they will be paid for their untaken leave for this year only but must take leave in future' . I will also take this opportunity to amend the leave year so the next year runs from 1st April 2011 to 31st January 2012, and then 1st Feb to 31st Jan each year (this is better for me as January is a quiet month and untaken leave can be used then). Does that sound ok?

Incidentally, if I have a member of staff with a set working pattern of 16 hours, Monday and Tuesdays and another member of staff working 16 hours Wednesday and Thursdays, how many hours annual leave including bank holidays are each entitled to?

Thanks for your advice.

Sambucus_Nigra

Being in charge - you should be making sure that they are taking their allocated leave; it's not just about unscrupulous employers not allowing staff from taking leave, but to avoid situations where staff get 'stressed' as a result of not taking leave.

Use it or lose it should be your motto.

What I would do is to tot up what's left, and let them carry over this year only for 3 months max - rather than paying them for it. You never know when this will backfire and it is - after all - illegal. Signed agreement or not.

getmore4less

grannymay wrote: »

Incidentally, if I have a member of staff with a set working pattern of 16 hours, Monday and Tuesdays and another member of staff working 16 hours Wednesday and Thursdays, how many hours annual leave including bank holidays are each entitled to?

Asuming these are 2 8hr days(don't forget the legal breaks for over 6hour shifts).

They are entitled to 2/5 of the full time workers holidays.

So if you want to give statutory minimum of 5.6 weeksa thats 2*5.6 = 11.2 days of 8 hours each.

It is also a good practice for part time employees to accrue holiday for overtime upto a full time equivilent since not soing this could be contrued as detrimental to part timers over full timers.

scooby088

What really gets me is that people who have holidays owing should me made to take them, they are after all paid for them so i really can't see the logic of wanting to be paid in lieu.

liney

scooby088 wrote: »

What really gets me is that people who have holidays owing should me made to take them, they are after all paid for them so i really can't see the logic of wanting to be paid in lieu.

Because if I take one week as holiday I get one week's pay.

If I do not take a week as holiday and request I am paid in lieu I get two weeks pay that week.

If I was to be paid a week in lieu I get an extra week's wage in the year. That's the benefit of the request.



OP the situation you have put yourself in cannot end in a legal resolution. You should not pay in lieu of holidays if the employee has not had 5.6 week in the year, and you should have ensured that they were taken.

My suggestion would be that you decline to pay in lieu, insist they are taken within the next 3 months, and calculate your annual leave correctly for your part timers next year.

Remember you can allocate holidays if your staff refuse to book, by giving them notice to take them, ie if you want them to take a week you give them two weeks notice.

grannymay

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated. It's funny, I'm fine with PAYE, policies an procedures, etc. But when it comes to annual leave I'm totally stumped! It's one of those things that I just don't 'get'.

Sambucus_Nigra

grannymay wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated. It's funny, I'm fine with PAYE, policies an procedures, etc. But when it comes to annual leave I'm totally stumped! It's one of those things that I just don't 'get'.

So, make sure you get yourself trained up!

It's all part and parcel of being an employer.

grannymay

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

So, make sure you get yourself trained up!

It's all part and parcel of being an employer.

I am trying!

I started my company thinking it would just be me and 1 other member of staff with a few clients. Less than a year later I've got 7 WTE staff and 27 clients.

I've had to learn fast but some things just take longer to decipher than others!