Holiday Pay Dispute

bbuckx

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on a holiday pay dispute with my now previous employer. Sorry if its a bit lengthy!

I started working for a company in Scotland on 13th April 2017. It was a brand new branch, part of a franchise, being opened by a husband and wife team. I accepted the job on the 23rd March, and received my job offer via email, which stated about my hours: "We discussed hours in the region of 12 per week on a rota to be agreed, included evenings and weekends." My employer knew I ideally wanted full time hours but as there were 4 members of staff, not including her and her husband, she said I would probably only get around 12 a week. However, by the time the branch actually opened on 29th April, one of the other new employees had already quit, and without question, myself and one of the remaining employees agreed to do more hours to make up for this. My boss and I had a couple of conversations where she said something along the lines of "I'm really glad you're getting full time hours now." I'll just mention now that we were never given a contract or a written statement of employment, nothing other than the email job offer. The shifts were done on a monthly rota system, which up until July, the rota was made by one of the employees. We agreed all the shifts in advance, with no mention of 'overtime' and were pressured to work more weekends than we ideally wanted. I usually worked between 20-36 hours a week, although with my average hours overall being 24 hours per week.

Towards the end of July I got offered a job at a company much closer to home, with a 9-5 work pattern which I preferred over the current rota system, and I accepted. I offered to give over two weeks notice (to the end of the current rota) as we were short staffed and I didn't want to leave them short of cover, as another employee was also leaving around the same time as me.

I handed in my notice on Friday 14th July. Ten minutes before the end of my shift on Monday 17th July, my manager came in and said she was only going to accept a week's notice and that made tonight my last shift (my next shift was due to be Friday 24th July). I was a bit taken aback as then I believed my last shift would be Sunday 30th July, but I accepted. However, I have since came to realise through information from Acas that Friday 24th July should still have been my shift as my notice technically ran to the day after.

In my letter of resignation I asked for any outsanding holiday pay to be paid. I received this on Wednesday 26th July, however I had only been paid for 17 hours holiday pay, when on the government calculator it said I was entitled to 41.4 hours, which made this almost £200 short. I messaged my boss and she said that she had based this on my "basic 12 hours" and that overtime doesn't accrue holiday pay... I have phoned citizens advice and Acas and although they both said overtime should be included in holiday pay, Acas said that as I don't actually have a contract, 12 hours was not my contracted hours and I should be entitled to holiday pay on all my hours worked (343 hours I worked in total). They advised me to tell her this and give them 5 days to pay and if not, complete an Early Concilliation form. I told my boss this but she was still disputing this and said she spoke to Acas herself who told her that her basic statutory obligations had been met, and then I should focus on what I did gain out of this employmen rather than what I didn't and that she was disappointed how negative I was being...

If she did indeed speak to Acas, I'm guessing she left out some information, like the fact I never signed a contract agreeing to 12 hours. I have filled out the Early Conciliation form, but judging how awkward she has been so far, I'm not sure it will help her budge. I'm just looking for advice in regards to if I am definitely entitled to all of the holiday pay, and if the Early Conciliation doesn't work, is it a bit far to take it to an Employment Tribunal over the sake of £200 holiday pay?

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

sangie595

Based solely on what you have said here, yes, your claim is valid and you have received the correct advice. Given that tribunals no longer cost anything, then you should go for it - it probably won't get that far when she realises it will cost her more to defend it than to pay it.

[Deleted User]

Your calcs could be well out, I've worked a contracted 40 hours per week consistently for very nearly 24 weeks and someone worked out for me today and are adamant (whilst I really blooming hope they are incorrect) that actually the company I left are in the right at being due 14 hours which they'd even kindly rounded down to 13 - had no idea when you start and end somewhere if it's the wrong time of the month can have an impact.

ETA blown me down the direct gov website say's 110 hours and 27 minutes when I just entered my employment to and from date.

getmore4less

Deleted%20User wrote: »

Your calcs could be well out, I've worked a contracted 40 hours per week consistently for very nearly 24 weeks and someone worked out for me today and are adamant (whilst I really blooming hope they are incorrect) that actually the company I left are in the right at being due 14 hours which they'd even kindly rounded down to 13 - had no idea when you start and end somewhere if it's the wrong time of the month can have an impact.

ETA blown me down the direct gov website say's 110 hours and 27 minutes when I just entered my employment to and from date.

Holiday accrual is from day one to date of termination.

bbuckx

Yeah they definitely got that wrong!!