holiday pay problem

poolboy99

i have recently left my job under a dark cloud of animosity. The business was not doing well & it feels to me that I was used as a scapegoat.
A couple of months ago i was asked to move off salaried pay & onto hourly pay, the owners said that it would be better for me. I didn't trust them & told them that I thought that they would cut my hours if I moved onto the hourly pay by splitting my shifts. After a month of them niggling at me with small problems I received a letter that stated w they were considering dismissing me and that i should attend a disciplinary meeting. After a conversation with the owner that presented me with the letter, it appeared to me the meeting was a formality and the decision to dismiss me had already been taken.
I Have since completed an unhappy notice period and left. Before leaving I tried several times to pin them down on how much holiday pay i would receive, eventually getting a response of 2.6 weeks with a further 34 hours to be deducted from that figure. I recorded that conversation on my phone as I felt that they would try and mess me around. I was happy as around 2 weeks was the figure i had come to also.
I received my last paycheck on friday and was paid 4 and a half hours of holiday pay. After a phone call to the owner it appears that they have made up numerous dates that i "swapped shifts" and refused to supply me with the information of how they ended up with the final figure of 4 and a half hours. I have copies of the offical rotas for the whole period of my employment and aside from the holidays taken during this period they show me to be working my standard 48 hour week with no shift swaps.
I am fairly resigned to not getting anything out of them but do feel i have a strong case. Has anyone had a similar experience or could offer me some advice for next steps?I am in the process of writing a letter with the threat of legal action.

TBagpuss

Writing a leter is a good first step. Be aware that time limites for employment realted claims are often vry short so make sure that you don't let them drag things out until you are out of time.
I would suggest that you write to them and say

"In our meeting of [date] you confirmed that I wowas due, and would receive in my final pay packet, my full entitlement of holiday pay which you confirmed to be 2.6 weeks less 34 hours, i.e. 90.8 hours (check the figures to make sure tyou give the corect number of hours)

You have paid me 4.5 hours so the balance of 86.2 hours or £xxx remains due.

I confirm for the avoidance of doubt that I have checked the copies of all of the rotas for the period [relevent period] and during that time, I consitently worked my reguaklr, 48 hour week with no shoft changes or swaps. The only holiday I have taken was on [dates].

I am therefore confident that the figure you gave me in our meeting on [date] ios correct and that the sum due to me is [£xxx].

If you belive that this is wrong then please provide to me, within the next 7 daysm, a full breakdown of how you have calcualted your figure of 4.5 hours with copies of the relevant rota including the specific dates on which you allege I have taken holidays.

If I do not hear from you with either full payment, or the full details requested within 7 days I ahll be taking stepos to start legal proceedings to recover the outstanding balance and reserve the right to produice a copy of this letter to the court if ncessary"

I would suggest that you speak to the ACAS helpline and /or check whether you have legal cover on any insurnace policies which might enable you o get some initial free advice.

Masomnia

The above is good advice imho. The time limit for a tribunal claim for unlawful deduction from wages (which is potentially the case here) is 3 months from when the deduction happened, so I'd get cracking.

DandelionPatrol

Tribunal may not be the best place for this claim - this one would be suitable for small claims, which would be cheaper.