Custon and practice

b814sn1

Hello,

I've worked for a small company for 2.5 years. For 2 of those years I've been seconded to a company in Europe. There is no written statement coverning this secondment, we agreed things on a handshake. I thought I could trust him.

One of the verbal agreements was that I could take both UK and the local public holidays. There are 2 weeks shutdown in August which I was happy to use my annual leave days in the spirit of common sense and goodwill.

Last month he asked to see copies of all timesheets and booking info for this year. This week he sent an email to say that I should only be booking the local public holidays (4 more than UK) and wants to take the difference off my annual leave days, backdated to Jan 1st 2012. I queried this and reminded him of our verbal agreement.

He accused me of being negative and said that now I could only book UK holidays. He denied ever making the verbal agreement. So suddenly half way through the year I've had my total days off for the year cut by 4 which is very inconvenient as, as most people, I've planned all my holidays to the end of the year in advance.

I'm unsure how to play it now and would appreciate advice.

I have timesheets, payslips for the last 2 years so I can prove he has been happy to pay for both sets of public holidays in the past. How can I use this in any "discussions" with him?

Also, is he allowed to backdate new arrangements (although I suppose his position is that they aren't new)?

The implication in his denial of being me allowed to book both sets of holidays implies that I've been misbooking for this (and the previous) year. I'm guessing this could constitute misconduct or gross misconduct. I may hear more on this during this week as he is visiting us at the site in Europe (a coincidence I wonder???).

I have a colleague out here who was told the same thing as me (verbally) and now he's in the same boat as me too. Does having two of use being able to back each other up strengthen our position in any way? How do we use this "strength" in our discussions with the boss?

I've lost my appetite and am losing sleep over this.

I feel like ending the secondment but I think that's what he wants me to do and is provoking me. I just wonder what's next.

I am in a union and have phoned them (I'm awaiting a call back). I'd like to keep my job and realise that once they are involved that probably crosses a line about carrying on. I may get the sack anyway of course.

colino

I'd make sure you have your colleagues agreement and have a session with your Union. This might be the first grim signs of a company in trouble looking for an excuse to off-load expensive assets such as yourself at little or no cost to them.

KiKi

You've lost your appetite over the fact that you may have 4 days fewer holidays? That seems a rather extreme response.

You've been lucky enough to have both UK AND local holidays up until now. If your employer wants to change that, he can, he can give reasonable notice to that. I wouldn't advocate backdating it (although it would be your word against his anyway), but he could just take 4 fewer from the rest of the year anyway, without backdating, so the end result is the same.

I don't think there's any implication that you've been misbooking - you yourself have already said that you have payslips and proven holiday signed off for the last two years anyway. (So that part of your post feels like you're trying to read more into it to make it sound more drastic.)

If you're seriously losing sleep and have lost your appetite over the fact that you may now only get 8 bank holidays instead of 12, perhaps you should consider a different job. I don't mean that facetiously - I'm being very serious! If you're not happy with it, you'll have to move on.

KiKi

getmore4less

What does you local boss think, will they employ you directly.
(Are the employment laws better in that country)

What have you negotiated for pay/expences?

Who benifits from you being seconded, you need the on your side.

Make sure you have relocation costs back to the uk writen into an agreement ASAP, last thing you want is redundancy and have to pay your own costs to get back.

ALways a good idea to fire off an email after a verbal agreement to confirm your understanding of the agreement.

b814sn1

Thanks. We would definitely get the sack if we discussed anything negative with the local company! They seem happy with my work as the secondment has been extended 3 times at their request.

I'm only on a secondment and have no desire to work in Europe permanently.

No uplift in basic pay being here. £10 disturbance allowance per day. Furnished accommodation provided. Own car over here (which I agreed to do to keep costs down), paid 40p per mile mileage. Nothing about any of these secondment agreements are in writing - he refused. No complaints about any of this other than I can't now trust his word to change anything on a whim.


To the previous poster ... I'm not upset at losing a few days off per se, it's the implied dishonesty I'm struggling to cope with; never had anything like that thrown at me in 25 years of working.