Holiday Pay during notice period

jodie45

I have recently been made redundant and am entitled to a 12 week notice period. As a part time employee I work 3 days a week, working an average of 16 hours a week. 18 months ago any holiday I took was unpaid but then my employer told me I had to be paid for any holiday I took and began to deduct approximately 12% of my wages to set aside to pay me for that. They have now told me that the money they deducted from me, around £400 at the moment, will form part of my notice period and will be paid to me as my wages. This equates to 4 weeks pay so my employer will only pay me 8 weeks notice and expects me to pay for the rest. Is this legal?

sharpe106

Why were your holidays were unpaid to begin with and why have they deducted pay for holidays?

jodie45

They were unpaid because when I started work there 20 years ago at that stage I did not have any paid holiday as I don’t it was a legal requirement? Then about 18 months ago I was told there was a change in legislation that meant I had to have paid holiday and so they started deductions of 12% of my wages monthly so that when I did go on holiday they would pay me from that fund of money. Basically paying myself for any holidays I took.

sharpe106

With regards to the notice period you still accrue holiday entitlement whilst on notice period, they can make you take the holiday whilst on notice period but you still get paid it. They can't deduct money for holiday unless you have already had more holidays then you would have accrued. 

I would seek clarification on how they have paid you holiday pay previously too. As holiday pay has been a legal requirement for quite a long time.

lincroft1710

Do you work in a care home(or similar)?

jodie45

No I work in an air conditioning company.

General_Grant

jodie45 said:

They were unpaid because when I started work there 20 years ago at that stage I did not have any paid holiday as I don’t it was a legal requirement? Then about 18 months ago I was told there was a change in legislation that meant I had to have paid holiday and so they started deductions of 12% of my wages monthly so that when I did go on holiday they would pay me from that fund of money. Basically paying myself for any holidays I took.

It was indeed a legal requirement - since October 1998 (The Working Time Directive).

Perhaps they found out and decided to reduce your pay so that they could meet their lawful duty to provide paid leave without any additional cost to themselves.

Your entitlement is to paid leave.  How much holiday have you actually been taking?

sharpe106

It irrelevant or not how they calculate the paid leave you salary is including leave. So your salary is x amount with x amount of holidays.