Unused annual leave, leaving job

danrf27

I'm going to be putting my notice into work over the next couple of days, to finish at the end of October.

It turns out I've got 16 days annual leave that i havent used this year, and this runs out on 31st October, coinciding with when i leave (basically i had verbally agreed with line manager to use 11 days from this years allocation for next year).

I know i could just take the days off, but i'd prefer to take be paid for as many as possible - especially as i need to take a couple of months off due to operation. Would they be obliged to pay out on anything i have left (even 16)...

My contract states: "You may be required to take accrued holiday during any period of notice given by or to you. You shall be entitled to payment in lieu of any accrued untaken holiday entitlement in the Holiday Year during which your employment terminates". Seems a contradictory statement.

ElefantEd

No, it means what it says. If you resign, they can tell you that you must take any unused leave during your notice period. If you don't use it all, they will pay you for those days. It's up to you to negotiate how many days leave yout ake, or whether you can work every day and thus get the unused holiday days paid for instead.

cr1mson

Agree with ElephantEd it is not contradictory. They can require you to take leave during the notice period but any leftover after that will be paid.

So you could have to take all of them, some of them or none of them. What it is will depend on your company and probably your role ie how much of a handover is needed.

TELLIT01

Not contradictory at all. The employer may, in other words "if they wish", require any accrued leave to be taken during the notice period. The employee will still be entitled to payment for any remaining leave, if it can't be taken during the notice period.
It is entirely at the employers discretion. They may feel they need you at work for a handover period, but they may also decide they want you there as little as possible and force you to use your annual leave.

bouicca21

In a similar position and with a similar contract my employers bought out my leave. Mind you completion of a project depended on me not taking leave, so they more or less had to be nice about it.

Undervalued

danrf27 wrote: »

I'm going to be putting my notice into work over the next couple of days, to finish at the end of October.

It turns out I've got 16 days annual leave that i havent used this year, and this runs out on 31st October, coinciding with when i leave (basically i had verbally agreed with line manager to use 11 days from this years allocation for next year).

I know i could just take the days off, but i'd prefer to take be paid for as many as possible - especially as i need to take a couple of months off due to operation. Would they be obliged to pay out on anything i have left (even 16)...

My contract states: "You may be required to take accrued holiday during any period of notice given by or to you. You shall be entitled to payment in lieu of any accrued untaken holiday entitlement in the Holiday Year during which your employment terminates". Seems a contradictory statement.

As it is now 1 Oct I assume your notice period is 28 days? Keep in mind that, technically, notice begins the day after it is issued.

Regarding the holiday it is totally up to your employer. They are quite entitled to insist you take all of the owed holiday before you leave, or none of it, or some compromise in between.

As other have said your contract is not contradictory.

TBagpuss

Yes, as others have said, the provision is a fairly standard one.

Your employers can say tto youthat they wish you to take all of your leave,(and can say when you take it) so if you handed in your notice today, they *could* require you to take all 16 days between now andthe end of October, which would mean that you only worked around 4 or 5 days during your notice period, and idn't get any holiday paid when you leave.

Or they *could* not require you to take any, in which case assuming you don't book any, you would get paid out for the 16 days.

Orthey culd decide to tell you to take (say) 10 days, so your last day in the office might be in 2 weeks time rather than 4, and theyyou would get paid for the other 6 days.

i would imagine that a lot will depend on how busy they are and how easy it will be to provide cover or train someonbe to take over from you, as to whether they would rather have you there working and doing a hand over during your notice, or leaving in the way which costs them least.

[Deleted User]

If you want to be paid, I'd just make myself so busy I couldn't take time away from the business or are they really the sort of company that you can book leave for like literally next day?

Most employers I've worked for have themselves covered with a policy notice time for leave requests to be made in advance of being off or they have a policy of no leave authorised once notice is in, only paying out on leaving.

sportsarb

The reason those provisions are in there is because of circumstances like mine. I've been off long term sick, still accruing leave all the while, but as I have been given my notice and won't be returning before the end of my notice I cannot (well, I guess technically I could, but I won't be) use the leave that has accrued.

If you had 16 days, but had to give two weeks notice (effectively 10 working days), then you would be expected to take the 10 days and get paid for the balance of 6 days.