Unused holiday pay at end of employment

itchyfeet123

I recently finished at my previous employer, and had a substantial amount of unused annual leave. I was expecting to be paid for my unused leave in my final pay, but I was not. I've contacted the employer about this and am awaiting a response. I anticipate them saying I am not entitled to have my annual leave paid out, so I wanted to check that my understanding of the situation is correct before going into battle about this.

I was on a fixed term contract with possibility of renewal, which didn't happen. When it was clear that I would leave at the end of the contract, a redundancy meeting was scheduled. This was slightly more than three months before my end date. Holiday pay came up in this meeting and my manager suggested I should take all my leave to ensure it was not forfeited. I expressed surprise at the possibility of forfeiting the leave, and she said she'd look into it.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from my manager's admin person, asking for details of how much leave I had left so they could calculate whether the budget could accommodate paying out my leave when I finished. The email also said that if the budget could accommodate it, they would instruct payroll to pay out my leave. This was the last I heard of it.

My understanding is that legally any unused leave has to be paid. Employers are entitled to insist leave is taken at particular times, including being used up before the end of employment, but the notice period for this is twice the amount of leave.

Is it reasonable to say that my manager's comments about the possible forfeiture of leave in my redundancy meeting do not qualify as giving notice that I had to take leave on certain days?

Is it reasonable to say that the email conversation I had with my manager's admin is evidence that as of that date, I had not been given notice that I must take leave?

marliepanda

You appear to have made no effort to take your leave. If you had and they had denied the request, you'd be entitled, but you do not appear to.

So yes. Take it or lose it.

getmore4less

Not enough detail to work out what you could be owed.

need holiday year, holiday allowance, start date, end date to kick things off.

Then a list of paid holidays taken or paid BH that you did not work within that holiday year.

Guest101

itchyfeet123 wrote: »

I recently finished at my previous employer, and had a substantial amount of unused annual leave. I was expecting to be paid for my unused leave in my final pay, but I was not. I've contacted the employer about this and am awaiting a response. I anticipate them saying I am not entitled to have my annual leave paid out, so I wanted to check that my understanding of the situation is correct before going into battle about this.

I was on a fixed term contract with possibility of renewal, which didn't happen. When it was clear that I would leave at the end of the contract, a redundancy meeting was scheduled. This was slightly more than three months before my end date. Holiday pay came up in this meeting and my manager suggested I should take all my leave to ensure it was not forfeited. I expressed surprise at the possibility of forfeiting the leave, and she said she'd look into it.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from my manager's admin person, asking for details of how much leave I had left so they could calculate whether the budget could accommodate paying out my leave when I finished. The email also said that if the budget could accommodate it, they would instruct payroll to pay out my leave. This was the last I heard of it.

My understanding is that legally any unused leave has to be paid. Employers are entitled to insist leave is taken at particular times, including being used up before the end of employment, but the notice period for this is twice the amount of leave.

Is it reasonable to say that my manager's comments about the possible forfeiture of leave in my redundancy meeting do not qualify as giving notice that I had to take leave on certain days?

Is it reasonable to say that the email conversation I had with my manager's admin is evidence that as of that date, I had not been given notice that I must take leave?

How long had you worked there? - were you paid redundancy?


And what are the dates for the holiday year? Jan-Dec or Apr-Mar or?

itchyfeet123

marliepanda wrote: »

You appear to have made no effort to take your leave. If you had and they had denied the request, you'd be entitled, but you do not appear to.

So yes. Take it or lose it.

That contradicts the advice at https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/taking-holiday-before-leaving-a-job which says "[e]mployers must pay for untaken statutory leave".

getmore4less wrote: »

Not enough detail to work out what you could be owed.

need holiday year, holiday allowance, start date, end date to kick things off.

Then a list of paid holidays taken or paid BH that you did not work within that holiday year.

Holidays are 27 days + bank holidays + closure days. Leave year is Oct-Sept; my employment ended early June so (8/12*27)=18 days. I also had five days carried over from last year. 3 days used in Nov, 2 days used in April, 2 days in May. So I was expecting 16 days.

Guest101 wrote: »

How long had you worked there? - were you paid redundancy?
And what are the dates for the holiday year? Jan-Dec or Apr-Mar or?

Just over 2 years, and yes, paid redundancy.
Leave year is Oct-Sept.

Guest101

itchyfeet123 wrote: »

That contradicts the advice at https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/taking-holiday-before-leaving-a-job which says "[e]mployers must pay for untaken statutory leave".




Holidays are 27 days + bank holidays + closure days. Leave year is Oct-Sept; my employment ended early June so (8/12*27)=18 days. I also had five days carried over from last year. 3 days used in Nov, 2 days used in April, 2 days in May. So I was expecting 16 days.



Just over 2 years, and yes, paid redundancy.
Leave year is Oct-Sept.

Ok that sounds more reasonable. Lots of people save holiday for the summer so you cant be criticised for it being untaken.


You can actually claim this via the small claims courts as it's a fixed sum of money owed, not an employment law question.

getmore4less

getmore4less wrote: »

Not enough detail to work out what you could be owed.

need holiday year, holiday allowance, start date, end date to kick things off.

Then a list of paid holidays taken or paid BH that you did not work within that holiday year.

itchyfeet123 wrote: »

Holidays are 27 days + bank holidays + closure days. Leave year is Oct-Sept; my employment ended early June so (8/12*27)=18 days. I also had five days carried over from last year. 3 days used in Nov, 2 days used in April, 2 days in May. So I was expecting 16 days.

you need to prorata the BH

35*8/12 = 23.34 days + 5 = 28.34.

7days taken, assuming you did not work BH that's another 7.

14.34 left.

andygb

I would say that the OP is definitely due this pay in lieu of leave not taken, and would say that only an unscrupulous employer would try to withhold it.

Undervalued

marliepanda wrote: »

You appear to have made no effort to take your leave. If you had and they had denied the request, you'd be entitled, but you do not appear to.

So yes. Take it or lose it.

No.

The employer could, if they so wished, have insisted that the OP used up some or all of their leave during the notice period. They didn't so they now have no alternative but to pay it.

This applied to their statutory leave entitlement (28 days per year). If they get more holiday than that then it is possible they may lose any additional entitlement but they cannot lose the unused part of the statutory minimum.

TBagpuss

You are entitled to pay for your unused *statutory* holiday. You said you get 27 days plus bank holidays which = 35 days. Of those, 28 days are your statutory holiday and 7 are contractual. So if you carried 5 days over from last year, those are contractual, not statutory days, and you are only entitled to be paid for them if your contracts provides for it.

this year, you have accrued 18 days and used 7, so should be entitled to 9 days pay for this year's unused holiday. ( I am assuming that you didn't work bank holidays and therefore that you used the bank holidays at the same rate as you accrued them)

TELLIT01

I don't see that an employer can basically say that outstanding holiday pay will only be forthcoming if they can afford it from their budgets. It is money to which you are entitled, end of story.