Untaken holiday pay with no employment contract

laferdydurke

I was employed on a full-time basis (irregular hours) in the company for 9 months, from June 2015 to February 2016. I did not receive any written contract or statement from the company. I tried to get paid holiday leave during my employment, but the manager told me verbally that I cannot receive any paid-holiday leave, because "I have not contract between me and the company" (?!). I believed it was illegal as employer must provide me the contract after 2-months of work. I kept asking for the contract and paid-leave, but on February the owner of the company changed and in the result of this I was... dismissed from work.

So now what I want is to receive outstanding holiday pay for 9-months of full-time work. I wrote a formal letter to my ex-employer with polite request payment for this. However, the employer replied me that I was only permitted to receive holiday payment for this year (2016), as it does not permitted to carry over holiday entitlement into the next year. The employer also included quotation from company's contract.

The problem is I never received or signed any contract or agreement. I also know that most of the employees did not receive contract too, they also did not receive paid holiday leave. I have all payslips, I counted my holiday entitlement using calculator on Gov.uk.

Question is what I should to do? What is the best solution for me? Do I have rights to ask for untaken holiday payment from the last year?

Best regards,
K.

jobbingmusician

Since you did not receive any written statement from the company, it would be reasonable to assume that the holiday year is the same as most people's tax year, from April to Mar. You asked for holiday within this time and were refused it.

I think your best way forward is the CAB or even to see if you can get a free, consulatation, half hour with an employment lawyer.

sangie595

laferdydurke wrote: »

I was employed on a full-time basis (irregular hours) in the company for 9 months, from June 2015 to February 2016. I did not receive any written contract or statement from the company. I tried to get paid holiday leave during my employment, but the manager told me verbally that I cannot receive any paid-holiday leave, because "I have not contract between me and the company" (?!). I believed it was illegal as employer must provide me the contract after 2-months of work. I kept asking for the contract and paid-leave, but on February the owner of the company changed and in the result of this I was... dismissed from work.

So now what I want is to receive outstanding holiday pay for 9-months of full-time work. I wrote a formal letter to my ex-employer with polite request payment for this. However, the employer replied me that I was only permitted to receive holiday payment for this year (2016), as it does not permitted to carry over holiday entitlement into the next year. The employer also included quotation from company's contract.

The problem is I never received or signed any contract or agreement. I also know that most of the employees did not receive contract too, they also did not receive paid holiday leave. I have all payslips, I counted my holiday entitlement using calculator on Gov.uk.

Question is what I should to do? What is the best solution for me? Do I have rights to ask for untaken holiday payment from the last year?

Best regards,
K.

The employer is incorrect. In the absence of a written contract of employment, the start of the holiday year is the start date of the employment, so none of this holiday was in a previous holiday year and so is due to be paid. If they wanted it to be otherwise they should have issued the contract!

It would probably be cheaper to claim unpaid holiday via the county court rather than an employment tribunal, but do check with CAB or an employment advisor to ensure that there are no complications to the claim.

Undervalued

sangie595 wrote: »

It would probably be cheaper to claim unpaid holiday via the county court rather than an employment tribunal, but do check with CAB or an employment advisor to ensure that there are no complications to the claim.

Indeed.

However, keep in mind there is a three month time limit in which to launch an ET claim and that must be nearly up (or even passed depending on when in Feb you left).