Unused holidays

Batman_100

Firstly, sorry if this seems like a stupid question.

Here's my situation;

The company I started working for a few months ago has a holiday year which runs from November 1st to October 31st. We need not get statutory minimum holiday entitlement and I'd (just about) managed to use all my holiday entitlement before the end of October. However some of my colleagues (we're all new starters on my team except for the manager) had had pay deducted from Octobers pay slip and upon closer inspection the number of days pay people hadn't received corresponded to the number of days holidays they allowed to lapse at the end of the 2015/16 holiday year.

This is a situation I've never encountered before as I've only ever worked short term temporary jobs and this is the first time I've been in a job for the changeover from one holiday year to another.

One of my colleagues told me that in a previous job unused holiday entitlement hasn't been an issue for him as he would still get paid regardless of whether he actually takes time off or not. To me this seems like the common sense approach and how I just assumed every workplace works.

I know there are laws now about employers not being able to give payment in leiu of holidays but I always thought this meant they were not allowed to pay you over and above your normal hourly rate to try and encourage you not to take time off. I didn't think they were legally allowed to and it feels very unfair to withhold pay from people simply because they choose not to use their full holiday entitlement.

I'm asking this because I'm the sort of person who has a bit of an old fashioned attitude towards the world of work and I try to avoid taking time off if I can possibly avoid it. This is something that might affect me in years to come. And sorry if I'm asking about something that might be blatantly obvious to 99% of people, but I'm still relatively new to the labour market and I've never come across this situation before.

CraftyMummy

I would check your annual leave policy. Many companies have the 'use it or lose it' policy, when you say pay deductions do you mean they had the hours taken off from their pay?? Or just that they were not paid the hours they didn't take?? The first seems dodgy while the second is common practice for many companies.

Batman_100

CraftyMummy wrote: »

I would check your annual leave policy. Many companies have the 'use it or lose it' policy, when you say pay deductions do you mean they had the hours taken off from their pay?? Or just that they were not paid the hours they didn't take?? The first seems dodgy while the second is common practice for many companies.

I'm not sure, I didn't get to see any payslips, it was just some of my colleagues talking about it.

sangie595

I am slightly bemused about a deduction of pay because you didn't take holiday. Deductions would normally result from overtaking holiday!

I have never heard failing to take your holiday due being described as "old-fashioned". "Stupid" yes! I am old enough to be "old-fashioned", and I can tell you that not taking your holidays is something that people have never had a habit of doing!!!

Employers are not allowed to buy back statutory holiday except where someone is leaving. Full stop. This is not unfair or odd. Holiday is an essential part of health and wellbeing in work. That is why we have laws to protect it. If you are young and new to employment, this may not feel it an issue. So I'll let you in on a secret. It won't be many years before working all those hours and never taking holiday has an impact on you. At best, you will be a boring old fart before you are old enough to be one. At worst it will damage your health, a price that you won't pay next year, or maybe in ten years - but one day it will come back to haunt you.

If you want to impress, then be very good at what you do in the hours you have to do it - then enjoy your time off and get a life. There will only be one of them!

Batman_100

sangie595 wrote: »

I am slightly bemused about a deduction of pay because you didn't take holiday. Deductions would normally result from overtaking holiday!

I have never heard failing to take your holiday due being described as "old-fashioned". "Stupid" yes! I am old enough to be "old-fashioned", and I can tell you that not taking your holidays is something that people have never had a habit of doing!!!

Employers are not allowed to buy back statutory holiday except where someone is leaving. Full stop. This is not unfair or odd. Holiday is an essential part of health and wellbeing in work. That is why we have laws to protect it. If you are young and new to employment, this may not feel it an issue. So I'll let you in on a secret. It won't be many years before working all those hours and never taking holiday has an impact on you. At best, you will be a boring old fart before you are old enough to be one. At worst it will damage your health, a price that you won't pay next year, or maybe in ten years - but one day it will come back to haunt you.

If you want to impress, then be very good at what you do in the hours you have to do it - then enjoy your time off and get a life. There will only be one of them!

I wasn't expecticing a big long lecture like that, just advice about whether what my employer has done is legal/common practice.

I do actually take holidays and I know how encouraging people to take time off is considered good HR practice. It's just that I've always thought that at the end of the day you get given a holiday entitlement and it's your personal choice as to whether you choose to use it or not.

I've never believed in taking time off work simply for the sake of using up holiday entitlement. Part of it comes from the fact that in the past I have been long term unemployed and my mental health did suffer as a result of stsying st home all day and eating bored. Secondly I was raised to believe that you should always look at the world of work in terms of what you can do for your employer and not what your employer can do for you. So sitting at home all day or occupying my time with things I could do in the evenings and weekends whilst I could be at work goes completely against that philosophy. Sorry if that sounds old fashioned, it's just how I feel about these things.

sangie595

Batman_100 wrote: »

I wasn't expecticing a big long lecture like that, just advice about whether what my employer has done is legal/common practice.

I do actually take holidays and I know how encouraging people to take time off is considered good HR practice. It's just that I've always thought that at the end of the day you get given a holiday entitlement and it's your personal choice as to whether you choose to use it or not.

I've never believed in taking time off work simply for the sake of using up holiday entitlement. Part of it comes from the fact that in the past I have been long term unemployed and my mental health did suffer as a result of stsying st home all day and eating bored. Secondly I was raised to believe that you should always look at the world of work in terms of what you can do for your employer and not what your employer can do for you. So sitting at home all day or occupying my time with things I could do in the evenings and weekends whilst I could be at work goes completely against that philosophy. Sorry if that sounds old fashioned, it's just how I feel about these things.

It doesn't sound old-fashioned at all. For the reason I have already stated. But if you do not wish to take your holidays, don't take them. Just then don't complain about not being paid for them! And if you don't want any opinions, don't post on a site that is about inviting opinions.

aife

"I've never believed in taking time off work simply for the sake of using up holiday entitlement. Part of it comes from the fact that in the past I have been long term unemployed and my mental health did suffer as a result of stsying st home all day and eating bored. Secondly I was raised to believe that you should always look at the world of work in terms of what you can do for your employer and not what your employer can do for you. So sitting at home all day or occupying my time with things I could do in the evenings and weekends whilst I could be at work goes completely against that philosophy. Sorry if that sounds old fashioned, it's just how I feel about these things.[/QUOTE]"

- You scare me

getmore4less

Light on facts.

All we have is someone says they have a deduction and they think it is holiday related.

Tell those affected to ask for an explanation from the employer.

once they have one you can post some useful information or better still get one of them to post so information comes first hand .

............................
Are you getting paid rolled up holiday, that is one way that I could understand a deduction in the pay for the end of the holiday year.

Also if this is a min wage job does the deduction take them below min wage.

Rolled up holiday not being always legal is a separate issue if that is what is happening.

Batman_100

getmore4less wrote: »

Light on facts.

All we have is someone says they have a deduction and they think it is holiday related.

Tell those affected to ask for an explanation from the employer.

once they have one you can post some useful information or better still get one of them to post so information comes first hand .

............................
Are you getting paid rolled up holiday, that is one way that I could understand a deduction in the pay for the end of the holiday year.

Also if this is a min wage job does the deduction take them below min wage.

Rolled up holiday not being always legal is a separate issue if that is what is happening.

I think they just hadn't been paid for however many days they hadn't taken as holiday, so for those days they were effectively working for nothing and didn't realise it.

Surely that can't be legal? That's the main point I'm asking for clarification about.

getmore4less

IF that is what happened then it is not legal.

aife

I'm still struggling to understand this.
Are you saying the employer allocated them these days as A/L but they worked anyway / didn't know ?
Their pay shouldn't be any different , the point of paid leave is your wages stay the same so you can afford to recharge.
As others have said , it is fairly common practice for employers to insist people take their leave by a certain date or forfeit it , but again that shouldn't affect your wages