Paid Annual Leave on Maternity

fiisch

My wife has recently completed 9 months of maternity leave at her employer. There have been some issues with said employer, and she's taken this opportunity to leave and find alternative part-time work.


Maternity Leave started December 2016 and finished September 15th 2017. She was entitled to 20 days (+ bank holidays) annual leave per year, and the holiday year ran from 1st January 2017.


Her final pay completely omitted any pay for holiday entitlement - when chased, the company begrudgingly paid up, but I'm not completely satisfied that they have done this correctly.


Her hourly rate was £12, and she worked 8.5 days, .5hr of which was an unpaid lunch break.


Therefore, by my calculations:


15th September is 258th day. 258/352 * 20 = 14.6.


14.6 * (£12 * 8) = £1401.60




1). Are my above assumed calculations correct? I am working on the assumption Bank Holidays are not included.


2). Her employer has deducted tax and NI from her wages. Her earnings this year will be below the tax threshold (circa £8k) - assuming this will come back to her with normal tax adjustment.


3). Employer has rounded holiday entitlement down to 14 days - is this fair/ethical?


4). Employer has paid for 7.5 hour days, not 8 hour days (claims that when they work they are entitled to an additional 2 x 15 minute breaks that they do not get paid for when on annual leave) - I have never heard someone's day rate being different based on whether or not it's annual leave!


She has actually been paid £1014, which is nearly £400 less than I had anticipated. £243 of this difference is explained by tax (£130.62) and NI (£113)....


Is this worth quibbling, or is it all fair and above board and will work itself out?

Comms69

fiisch wrote: »

My wife has recently completed 9 months of maternity leave at her employer. There have been some issues with said employer, and she's taken this opportunity to leave and find alternative part-time work.


Maternity Leave started December 2016 and finished September 15th 2017. She was entitled to 20 days (+ bank holidays) annual leave per year, and the holiday year ran from 1st January 2017. - she's entitled to 28 days leave. (Often best to ignore + bank holiday stuff) - so by 15 September she would have approx. 22.5 days A/L


Her final pay completely omitted any pay for holiday entitlement - when chased, the company begrudgingly paid up, but I'm not completely satisfied that they have done this correctly. - well it depends on a number of factors


Her hourly rate was £12, and she worked 8.5 days, .5hr of which was an unpaid lunch break. So £96 per day (presumably 5 days a week?)


Therefore, by my calculations:


15th September is 258th day. 258/352 * 20 = 14.6. - not quite - it's around 22.5 days (assuming BH weren't paid during maternity leave? not sure if that's possible to be honest)


14.6 * (£12 * 8) = £1401.60




1). Are my above assumed calculations correct? I am working on the assumption Bank Holidays are not included. - why not? - Was she paid full wages for the bank holidays to date?


2). Her employer has deducted tax and NI from her wages. Her earnings this year will be below the tax threshold (circa £8k) - assuming this will come back to her with normal tax adjustment. - presumably, assuming she wont be working again this financial year


3). Employer has rounded holiday entitlement down to 14 days - is this fair/ethical? - possibly


4). Employer has paid for 7.5 hour days, not 8 hour days (claims that when they work they are entitled to an additional 2 x 15 minute breaks that they do not get paid for when on annual leave) - I have never heard someone's day rate being different based on whether or not it's annual leave! - What were her contracted hours? It's not different. But the important figure is the total weekly hours paid


She has actually been paid £1014, which is nearly £400 less than I had anticipated. £243 of this difference is explained by tax....


Is this worth quibbling, or is it all fair and above board and will work itself out?

Need some more info

getmore4less

Summary

fiisch wrote: »

Maternity Leave started December 2016 and finished September 15th 2017.

She was entitled to 20 days (+ bank holidays) annual leave per year, and the holiday year ran from 1st January 2017.

5.6 weeks is statutory

Her hourly rate was £12, and she worked 8.5 days, .5hr of which was an unpaid lunch break.

40 hr weeks @ £12ph £480


Therefore, by my calculations:

15th September is 258th day. 258/352 * 20 = 14.6.


14.6 * (£12 * 8) = £1401.60


easier in weeks
37/52 * 5.6 * £480 = £1912.62

1). Are my above assumed calculations correct? I am working on the assumption Bank Holidays are not included.

Statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks they should not deduct the BH or paythem when on maternity

2). Her employer has deducted tax and NI from her wages. Her earnings this year will be below the tax threshold (circa £8k) - assuming this will come back to her with normal tax adjustment.

should do

3). Employer has rounded holiday entitlement down to 14 days - is this fair/ethical?

can't round down

4). Employer has paid for 7.5 hour days, not 8 hour days (claims that when they work they are entitled to an additional 2 x 15 minute breaks that they do not get paid for when on annual leave) - I have never heard someone's day rate being different based on whether or not it's annual leave!

holidays pay is based on a weeks pay they get paid 480pw that's the holiday pay

She has actually been paid £1014, which is nearly £400 less than I had anticipated. £243 of this difference is explained by tax (£130.62) and NI (£113)....


Is this worth quibbling, or is it all fair and above board and will work itself out?

they are way down definitely worth raising the flaws in the calculations.

fiisch

Thank you both - revised numbers :


- £12 (hourly rate) * 7.5 hours = day rate of £90;
- Maternity leave ended 15th September 2015. 15th September is the 258th day of the year, therefore 258/352 = 0.733;
- Annual Leave Entitlement = 28 days (20 days holiday + 8 days Bank Holiday);
= 28 * 0.733 = 20.523;
- 20.523 * 90 (day rate) = £1846.05 (before tax/NI deductions).


Makes a big difference - we're over £800 short. Email on it's way to the Director (it's a small company!).

Energize

Where does 258/352 * 20 = 14.6 come from? There are 356 days in a year, this instead gives 14.49 which would be rounded to the nearest half day or day which gives 14 days holiday and is considered ethical because it statistically works in the employees favour just over half the time.

Comms69

Energize wrote: »

Where does 258/352 * 20 = 14.6 come from? There are 356 days in a year, this instead gives 14.49 which would be rounded to the nearest half day or day which gives 14 days holiday and is considered ethical because it statistically works in the employees favour just over half the time.

Uhm......

Energize

Comms69 wrote: »

Uhm......

Oh dear, haha. I have only just woken up!

Still comes to 14 days holiday using his figure of 20 days accrued though.

fiisch

Good spot.... 365... or 365.25 to be exact!! Not quite sure where I got 352 from - trying to do much at once!


So it should be 258/365 = so 19.79 days.


So 19.5 rounded down to nearest 1/2 day, * 90...?

Energize

19.79 would be rounded up to 20, I don't know enough about maternity leave to know whether bank holidays that have occurred so far would be deducted from pay though.

fiisch

My initial thoughts were public holiday was extra, but based on some of the earlier comments I have checked ACAS and indeed, Comms69 comments re.: consider 28 days instead of 20 days annual leave would seem to be correct.


This is why I love this forum - I think there's an extra £4-500 due to my wife based on calculation including public holidays, which given that she has not been paid for these to date, would make sense.

Energize

Just read the op again, and no they cannot say the breaks are paid during normal days and unpaid for annual leave.

So it's a full 4 weeks pay, they owe £1,920 gross so she should have got £1,578.91 after tax.