advice needed regarding work

curiosity

hi, have been told by work that the shop is due to close for refurbishment that will take approx two weeks. Because we will be unable to work during this period we have been told that we will not be paid. Just wondered if anyone knows whether this is legal or not? many thanks in advance.

firesidemaid

ooh, not sure.

try either the tuc or unison websites for help.

acas (no available on their website) are very good at answering your queries over the telephone too.

curiosity

Thankyou, i will have a look at the websites. fingers crossed.

jobbingmusician

Your employers can force you to take your annual holiday at any time that is convenient to them, so they are perfectly within their rights to say that you have to take your holiday during these 2 weeks (but they will have to pay you your holiday pay - they have to give you a minimum of 4 weeks' paid holiday a year). This is quite different from your case, where they are proposing not to pay you - not paying you is a breach of your contract of employment, and (again AFAIK) they cannot do this.

curiosity

thankyou, that is useful to know, i didnt realise that they could force you to take holidays at set times so im kinda guessing that they will do it that way. We all (eight of us) have booked our holidays for the year, have only just heard news about store closing for fortnight in may, so assume they will class it as unpaid leave. I have e-mailed a couple of employment law places and if i ind out anything different will post it on here. Again many thanks for your help.

curiosity

hi have had a response from an employment law website which informs me that it would indeed be a breach of contract not to be paid for this period of time. Many thanks for your help in this matter.