Accrued holidays - Is this acceptable?

Zammit

Hi All,
I was furloughed for 4 weeks in April and returned to work on 4th May.
Yesterday, I received a telephone call from my manager explaining that I had accrued 2 days holiday whilst on furlough, (I knew this already).
I was then told that the company would pay me the extra 20% for those 2 days but I will lose the days from my holiday entitlement.
Is my employer allowed to do this?
Thanks in advance.

Jeremy535897

Unless your contract of employment says otherwise, they have to give you 4 days' notice for 2 days' holiday, but the answer is yes.

Zammit

Thanks for the quick reply.
I didn't receive any notice, the days were in April.
I hadn't agreed to take any holidays whilst I was furloughed and have been back in work since May.
What they are saying is that the 2 days I accrued whilst furloughed have been used as holidays.
I was under the impression that holidays had to be agreed.
To be told in June is out of order don't you think?
This doesn't seem right to me.

adamp87

I misunderstand from what you said in the opening post they haven’t used the holidays yet but will this month correct?

Grumpy_chap

The normal rules are 2 days notice for each day off.  That has not been given, so they can't force you to accept.

That said, if this were me, I'd just live with it.  As much as it seems unfair to you to lose 2 days annual leave, it is not really fair on the employer that you accrue annual leave while you are not working. 

Zammit

No, because I'm back in work now.
What they're saying is they will pay me the extra 20% for 2 days from when I was furloughed in April. As if I took the 2 days holiday in April.

bradders1983

I mean you could moan and moan about it to your employer. But maybe pick your battles as it probably puts you straight to the top of the list for redundancies if you do.

sharpe106

If you took them to court would you win most likely, as they can't but is it really something you want to fight over? As if they had given you the notice they could have done. So are you really to risk your job over what is really only a technicality. 

Jeremy535897

I suspect they have only recently realised that they could ask people to take holiday while on furlough. They should not do what they say they are going to do, but as other posters have said, yis it worth fighting?

Zammit

Ok, thanks for all the replies.
I'm not going to take this any further with them, however I won't forget it.
Thanks to all.

Grumpy_chap

Fighting talk!!

Best to forget it and use your energy more productively on the future.