Employer taking 2 days holiday from me without notice...legal?

tubie22

Hello, apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes, im using my phone.

I work part time time (16hours contract) for a well known retail company. The company says we must book our years worth of holidays by xmas (all my 2014-april 2015 holidays were booked by december 2013).

I had a week booked off not next week but the week after, it has been booked and approved by management from February. My last shift was sunday and my rota for that week was up: holidays enact. I came into work today to find that instead of my 4 holiday days, I now have 2 holiday days and 2 working shifts. I asked my assis manager, telling him it was meant to be my holiday week, which I feel I need, being 27 weeks pregnant. He told me the holiday year for out company is no longer april to april but now January to January and I lost any days I wasnt entitled to in the new system holiday year.

Is this allowed? Can they take previously booked and approved holidays from me without notice? Surely if the new holiday year starts in January it should be effective from January 2015 and shouldnt affect holidays that were already booked well in advance?

Was really looking forward to my week off as pregnancy has not been kind to me and it's getting much harder as the weeka go on.

I would like an official legal answer as to whether I should properly query this issue due to employer being in the wrong or just let it slide because my employers arent in the wrong.

Thanks in advance

getmore4less

If I have this right, you are on holiday next week so you have had notice.

THey should have notifoied of the change in holiday year as this requires a prorata system.

The better way to do this is to extend the year year to the new start date rather than shorten the year.


Anyway if this is causing you distress I would go to the GP and get all the holiday back and take some pregnacy related sick.

Remember you accrue all your holiday when on maternity so will be getting all those days anyway so remind the manager that it is good practice to bring those days forward and take them before you start.

tubie22

I wasnt told anythinv, I had to find it out for myself by looking at my rota. I could have easily not looked at it as I was meant to be off all of that week anyway so I would have missed the fact that it had been changed.

I was given no notification of it being changed (it must have been changed yesterday as it was still a full hol week on sunday when I checked) and I was given no notice of the favt that the hol year had changed so why should I lose out on pre booked and pre approved holidays?

Savvy_Sue

Did any of your colleagues know about this change to the holiday year?

How would you normally be told about contractual changes?

tubie22

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Did any of your colleagues know about this change to the holiday year?

How would you normally be told about contractual changes?

No one else knew until today apart from management staff who did not tell us anything. They have apparently known about the year change for a few months but none of us mere drones were told about it. Im due to go on maternity leave ayvthe end of july and was told I had to use any holidays before I left. I was told this back in feb, hence why I booked my July week ( week starting 20th july). The week was approved by the manager who has now taken away 2 of my days. Should they not have to honour any holidays pre booked?

I am not sure about how staff are told of contractual changes as nothing in mine or my close colleagues contracts have changed. Although the management do like to change syaffs shifts with no notice or warning.

tubie22

Also, no one elses holidays seem affected but mine. Everyone else is still getting their full week or 2 weeks as booked back in feb. 1 colleague has lost 3 days but not until March 2015, by which time the new holiday year would have started so that's fair enough.

Savvy_Sue

sounds to me like you have nothing to lose by raising a grievance. Are you in the union? Are you planning to go back post maternity leave?

getmore4less

tubie22 wrote: »

I wasnt told anythinv, I had to find it out for myself by looking at my rota. I could have easily not looked at it as I was meant to be off all of that week anyway so I would have missed the fact that it had been changed.


So why did you even consider raising the issue when there was the option to just not turn up as you were on holiday as you had not been officially notifies of the change, what's the correct process it will likely be in the holiday policy? .

I was given no notification of it being changed (it must have been changed yesterday as it was still a full hol week on sunday when I checked) and I was given no notice of the favt that the hol year had changed so why should I lose out on pre booked and pre approved holidays?

This is very wrong and is not the way to change holiday years I would check this has actually happened.

getmore4less

tubie22 wrote: »

No one else knew until today apart from management staff who did not tell us anything. They have apparently known about the year change for a few months but none of us mere drones were told about it. Im due to go on maternity leave ayvthe end of july and was told I had to use any holidays before I left. I was told this back in feb, hence why I booked my July week ( week starting 20th july). The week was approved by the manager who has now taken away 2 of my days. Should they not have to honour any holidays pre booked?

I am not sure about how staff are told of contractual changes as nothing in mine or my close colleagues contracts have changed. Although the management do like to change syaffs shifts with no notice or warning.

You will have the accrual during the rest of maternity to use up at some point so they can just use some of those days if there is a shortfall in the 2014 allowance due to the change in holiday year.


If the company policy is to use all maternity holiday accrual before maternity then point that out.

tubie22

getmore4less wrote: »

This is very wrong and is not the way to change holiday years I would check this has actually happened.

Yes this is what happened. I was working on sunday and was still a full holiday week. Monday I was off. Back In on Tuesday and it had been changed.

Had I just not mentioned it and not showed up under the assumption I was on a holiday week, it would have been solely MY fault for not checking my rota on a daily basis and I would have been given a verbal warning. Please know that this is not an efficiently run company, in fact its terrible. I do not plan to return after my maternity leave.

TBagpuss

is there a formal policy about leave? It would be reasonable for you to ask for a copy of the policy, and for detail of when the holiday year changed and when and how the company claims that you were notified.

Does your contract specify that you can lose accrued leave if it isn't taken? If this means that you got less than the statutory minimum of 28 days (or the pro rata equivalent) then I do not think that the company is entitled to say you have lost the days - I think they would have to let them roll forward into the new year.

it might be worth your while to phone the ACAS helpline to see if that can advise you http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2042