Bank Holiday Question needs an answer please

KiKi

Vejovis wrote: »

when you say work a BH, do you mean physically go into work, or when your work day happens to fall on a BH

As the OP says:

"The company make me book a days holiday whenevr I WORK a bank holiday. bank holidays are my regular working day and the company opens as usual."

I would assume they are actually working as he says the company is open as usual. He then says: "After contacting ACAS, they say that this legal as I have the choice to take the day off on Bank Holidays."

Ie, he has the choice to not work (so presumably wouldn't complain about losing a day's leave!!) but does. That's how I read it.


Of course, if he's off on those days, then the company are absolutely right. But I certainly read the opening post to say that he was working as the company opens, and he's being deducted a day's leave for not choosing to take the day off.

Either a misunderstanding between the OP, employer and ACAS, or yet more terrible advice from ACAS. (Or I read the post wrong. One of the three. )

KiKi

Vejovis

KiKi wrote: »

As the OP says:

"The company make me book a days holiday whenevr I WORK a bank holiday. bank holidays are my regular working day and the company opens as usual."

I would assume they are actually working as he says the company is open as usual. He then says: "After contacting ACAS, they say that this legal as I have the choice to take the day off on Bank Holidays."

Ie, he has the choice to not work (so presumably wouldn't complain about losing a day's leave!!) but does. That's how I read it.


Of course, if he's off on those days, then the company are absolutely right. But I certainly read the opening post to say that he was working as the company opens, and he's being deducted a day's leave for not choosing to take the day off.

Either a misunderstanding between the OP, employer and ACAS, or yet more terrible advice from ACAS. (Or I read the post wrong. One of the three. )

KiKi

i questioned it because he highlighted work as if it were an anomaly, which made me think it was when his work fell on a Bh rather than working a BH. especially with the stance the company are taking

SarEl

KiKi wrote: »

As the OP says:

"The company make me book a days holiday whenevr I WORK a bank holiday. bank holidays are my regular working day and the company opens as usual."

I would assume they are actually working as he says the company is open as usual. He then says: "After contacting ACAS, they say that this legal as I have the choice to take the day off on Bank Holidays."

Ie, he has the choice to not work (so presumably wouldn't complain about losing a day's leave!!) but does. That's how I read it.


Of course, if he's off on those days, then the company are absolutely right. But I certainly read the opening post to say that he was working as the company opens, and he's being deducted a day's leave for not choosing to take the day off.

Either a misunderstanding between the OP, employer and ACAS, or yet more terrible advice from ACAS. (Or I read the post wrong. One of the three. )

KiKi

Not wishing to nit pick - and the lack of clarity is the reason I have been staying out of this thread - but the OP did not say that they are made to book a days holiday on the same day as they are working, only that if they work on a bank holiday they are made to book a days holiday. It is not absolutely clear that they are not made to book that day on a day other than the bank holiday - it could be read either way. Much as I am not a fan of the ACAS call centre, I find it hard to believe that both they and the employer are making such a fundamentall error - especially after this has been queried over a period of time.

There are other aspects that are not clear. Whether, for example the OP is choosing to do overtime on an annual leave day - and therefore receives "compensatory pay" as a result. You cannot sell your statutory holidays back to your employer, but you can choose to work them and to be paid for that work (this being different than being forced to work on a bank holiday, in which case you are entitled to compensatory time). Or why, if the employer is treating the bank holidays as holiday, the OP is going in to work in the first place - if the employer insists that this is a holiday day, then I would take it as such and not work!

There appears to be something fundamentally flawed in the communication somewhere here, but it is impossible to determine from these details where that is happening - whether ACAS have misunderstood what has been said (or just got it wrong) or whether the OP has misunderstood their conditions of employment, or whether te employer has misunderstood the leave entitlement - or a mixture of all three. In the absence of a union to resolve the question, it might be sensible for the OP to take their contract and any other paperwork about this (including payslips) to CAB and see if they can work it out based on the actual facts in front of them.

bluenitsuj

mariefab wrote: »

When did you put in your formal complaint, was it in writing and did you get a written response?

I put in the formal complaint many months ago, it was dealt with in the correct matter, I had a letter back with a date to meet the personnel department, I took in a witness but they insisted that they were correct. As ACAS was backing them up I had knowhere to turn.

I do physically go into work on the mondays as that is my normal working day, the arguement by the company is that I could book them off if I wanted to, because I do not then that is my fault and I still need to book a days holiday for the B/H that I am working, even though I have gone in and worked.

I could take the Mondays off but being a parent of a 10 year old, my holiday needs to be in the summer holidays and half terms.

My understanding was that I am entitled to 22.4 days minimum and I can book that throughout the year, so If I work bank Holidays, I can take the day off at another time. We get paid double for Bank Holidays and I think this is also an excuse for the company. They say because they pay double for B/H then you have to lose a days holiday.

I hope this is all clearer.

t0rt0ise

So it sounds as though you are expected not to work the Bank Holidays but you choose to in order to get the double pay. So the employer is saying that you are going in voluntarily. So the answer is to stop going in on the Bank Holidays.

SarEl

t0rt0ise wrote: »

So it sounds as though you are expected not to work the Bank Holidays but you choose to in order to get the double pay. So the employer is saying that you are going in voluntarily. So the answer is to stop going in on the Bank Holidays.

We are still guessing, but it does rather sound as though your holiday entitlement includes bank holidays and therefore you are volunteering to work overtime, not being required to work. Have you actually checked your contract - just because Monday is a normal working day and your employer opens bank holidays doesn't mean the same thing as bank holidays that fall on a Monday are normal working days for you. But I still think that it would be useful to put the paperwork (including the grievance outcome) in front of someone so that they can see what is happening.

flutterby_lil

Well if you are going to be taking time off on a bank holiday, don't go in.

I cannot understand why they are doing this.