Annual Leave Year changed without being informed?

english_rose

Hi All

Perhaps a bit of an unusual case here, but I would really appreciate advice and feel a bit on my own. My sector doesn't have a union and I'm not sure how far I can get with citizen's advice for geographical reasons! In a nutshell(ish):

-I'm a UK citizen
-I worked for a UK based international company for a year or so in the UK before being seconded to an African country.
- My secondment started in July 2017, so it's been just over a year now.
- I recently resigned from the company

According to my calculations, I'm owed 23 days annual leave. I reached this amount by running a remaining leave report on our internal system which calculates leave from my timesheet. I then divided the total by 12 and multiplied by 9, to get the pro rata amount for up to the end of September.

My company says that they owe me 3 days leave rather than 23. The reason being that my annual leave year starts in July, rather than January, as that's when my secondment started.

However, I was never once informed of this, but quite the opposite! When I started secondment in July, a pro rata rate meant that i had 12.5 days leave for mid July - Dec. I got an email from admin towards the end of the year warning me that I had too much unused leave and if I didn't use it then I'd lose it, because only 10 days can be carried over to the next calendar year. I used some leave and 9 were carried over to the next calendar year. My overall amount refreshed in January, so I had the full 25 days plus 9 carried over. Why would all of this have happened if my annual leave year started in July? Surely it should have been refreshed to 25 in July?

In my global conditions, it says that annual leave is done by calendar year and specifies Jan to Dec. In my contract conditions, it just says 25 days per annum. I also have 5 days of R&R 'per calendar year'. Not once does it say anything about changing my annual leave year to the start of the secondment period.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Can they be correct? If not, how can I get support to fight it? Complicating the matter is that my next job will also be international so it would be hard to be around for a court case unless I'm given advance notice.

Thanks in advance for any advice! I hope this all makes sense.

Dox

Try ACAS for some free help: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4489

Have you actually set out in writing to your employer the reasoning you've given above? Make sure you send it to more than one person in case it's just some numpty who doesn't know the ropes but won't admit it.

english_rose

Thanks Dox, I'll try giving ACAS a call later today.

I emailed my reasoning to the head of HR (not the one who initially contacted me on this) so will see what comes back from that. I've since spoken with other seconded colleagues and they agree annual leave is Jan-Dec.

scd3scd4

What's with all these companies. We use E-days............can be viewed at all times even from home. I can book leave and get an answer in 12 hours if not straight away.

english_rose

Dox wrote: »

Try ACAS for some free help: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4489

Have you actually set out in writing to your employer the reasoning you've given above? Make sure you send it to more than one person in case it's just some numpty who doesn't know the ropes but won't admit it.

I called ACAS today and was very impressed. I might have the situation resolved :j Thank you!