Tempoaray Lay off From Work/holiday pay

JennyWright · 30 July 2011 at 10:24AM

I wonder if anyone can offer some advice?
I was working for a company who, due to a supposed temporary lack of work, laid me off. This was in my contract so it was done legally.
As far as I was concerned this was not a satisfactory situation and I immediately looked for another job. Any contact I had from the company stated that nothing had changed and they could not give a date when I would definitely be back at work. When I expressed my concern over this I was told I "must do what is right for me".
Thankfully I managed to get a job quite quickly and I handed my notice in. As my new employer wanted me to start straight away I said I was leaving with immediate effect and not giving notice which the company accepted.
However, I received a letter saying I owed them three days holiday pay as I was over my entitlement for the year so far (which is true)and they wanted me to pay back £207 by the end of July (letter received on 18th July). I have told them that as I have not been working for over a month I do not have the facility to pay this back but they are now threatening legal action.
I have since found out that the department I worked in is being moved to a different city and everyone in that department is being offered a different job on a lesser wage or they have to leave. This all just seems too convenient to me i.e being laid off due to "lack of work" which was never fully explained and now all of a sudden the job was no longer there at all.
My instinct is to tell them to ram it! But I dont want to be taken to court either and I do accept I have taken this additional holiday. Does any one know if I have the right to pay back the money owed in instalments? Any advice would be grateful!