Holiday Pay Not Honoured

CarlGlendinning

I have worked for a company since the 1st of July this year as an electrician and am weekly paid. It should be noted that I have not been offered an employment contract or received any pay slips to date. I had the last two weeks of August already booked off as holiday which they said they would honour. I checked that my wages have gone in today to find they have not. I have now been told I have not accrued enough holiday entitlement to be paid for both weeks. Can they do this? Whilst it may technically be true is it right that you have to accrue holiday first before taking it or is it, as I believe and has always been the case at other places I've worked where holiday is granted and paid assuming an annual allowance (or part thereof) and only becomes an issue if I left without accruing it?

sangie595

In any other year you would be correct. But in the first year of employment, the employer is not legally obliged to honour holiday that hasn't been accrued.

Have you spoken to whoever said they would pay it? Because that is obviously the starting point, but you will have to accept that in law they are correct, so any change now is a concession on their part.

CarlGlendinning

It may be that I have to accept this. But the main issue I have is that I wasn't informed and only found out when I didn't get paid. Of the two weeks holiday I took I went away for a week and had a week at home so could easily have not taken the second week. Is this just sharp practice or do I have any proper comeback?

sangie595

CarlGlendinning wrote: »

It may be that I have to accept this. But the main issue I have is that I wasn't informed and only found out when I didn't get paid. Of the two weeks holiday I took I went away for a week and had a week at home so could easily have not taken the second week. Is this just sharp practice or do I have any proper comeback?

Did anyone promise to pay you? Can you prove they did? Because they did honour your holiday. They just didn't pay you for it. If they hadn't, you'd be facing dismissal right now for unauthorised absences.

And it isn't up to an employer to inform you what the law says - it is up to you to know. Sorry, but that's the way the law operates. You don't get told, you find out.

Takeaway_Addict

CarlGlendinning wrote: »

It may be that I have to accept this. But the main issue I have is that I wasn't informed and only found out when I didn't get paid. Of the two weeks holiday I took I went away for a week and had a week at home so could easily have not taken the second week. Is this just sharp practice or do I have any proper comeback?

They did honour your holiday, you just didn't check how they operate.

Not sharp practice, more you not knowing your position

scd3scd4

My company would have paid you a % or ratio of the year you will work upfront even in the first year but then they are decent.


You really should have asked to be sure. Sorry.


They did honour your holiday just not with money.

getmore4less

1st year statutory holiday accrues at 1/12 per month on the 1st of the month that's 2.333 per month rounded up to the nearest 1/2 day.

4.666 (2/12) at the beginning of Aug(rounds up to 5)
7 (3/12) at the beginning of Sept.

comeandgo

How long were you with your previous employer. Did you not get any holiday money when you left? The company did honour your holidays, you got the time off, they were good to let you have the time off, you have not been there long enough for full holiday pay but I would have expected maybe a days holiday pay.

anamenottaken

So they paid you for one week - is that correct? It seems that they are likely to have paid what you had accrued.

You could ask whether, when you have accrued further entitlement they will pay in retrospect. They would not have to do that but might.

On the other hand, if you continue working for them for the remainder of the holiday year and take all the holiday that accrues from 1st July to the end of the year, you will have had slightly more paid holiday than you would have "earned" in relation to the actual hours you will have worked (accruing holiday during the holiday time which was unpaid).

scd3scd4

Many companies will let you use what you will accrue until the end of the year in advance, others wont.

-taff

Honouring your holiday and paying you for your holiday are two different things.

I had hree weeks off last year after starting a job 3 weeks previous to that. They said they would honour them, and they did because I still had a job to go back to afterwards.
I didn't get paid for them though, nor was I expecting to be.