Annual leave paid but not given time off

matticus7

My wife took maternity leave from April 2021 to Jan 2022 and her workplace get new annual leave allowances from April of each year so my wife has taken none for this year.

I asked her to find out how many days annual leave she has so I could plan something before the cut off in April this year and she is being given the run around and not a direct answer.

When she received her first pay slip it was her normal wage which seemed odd since she went back half way through the month. Upon checking the payslip we noticed there was a lot of holiday pay to balance the payslip to a normal month's wage, my wife did not dicuss or agree to this prior to or after her maternity leave.

Anyway back to the current situation. She asked how many days holiday she has left and they're not being straight with her and are saying that they are going to pay her for the holidays she accrued during her maternity and any days she needs off can be taken off next year's allowance?

They are a small business and struggling to keep staff levels normal (not our problem) but surely they can't just pay you for your holiday and not give you those days off? It all seems very underhanded to me and unfortunately my wife is a bit of a pushover with things like this and doesn't question it.

Also just as an extra annoyance she worked 10 "back to work" days before finishing maternity and they told her that she can only work a full shift or nothing at all (so no half shifts or phased return) so I also question that as her shifts are 11 hours and they effectively got 110 hours of work for "free".

TBagpuss

As I understand it, they can only pay her in lieu of her statutory holiday entitlement if she were leaving employment. If she has additional contractual holiday then I think it would depend on the terms of the contract 

Thrugelmir

matticus7 said:

They are a small business and struggling to keep staff levels normal (not our problem)

That depends on how much you value your job. These are challenging times. Never wise to show a negative attitude. 

prowla

My interpretation of "they are going to pay her for the holidays she accrued during her maternity" is that she'll be paid extra for those days.

mumf

Thrugelmir said:

matticus7 said:

They are a small business and struggling to keep staff levels normal (not our problem)

That depends on how much you value your job. These are challenging times. Never wise to show a negative attitude. 

It’s not right though. 

getmore4less

It is important that you get written records of the request to take the holiday and the refusal.

It should be pretty easy to work out what holiday is due and just request it.

That way you have a record of what should have been carried over at the end of this holiday year as unable to take it.

Corona virus legislation is still in place if they are claiming they don't have the capacity to give the time off which allows for the carry over for upto  two years for the first 4 weeks of statutory.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/13

That covers the standard 4weeks(20 days)

The additional 1.6 weeks(8days) is covered by 13A (still only one year)

KIT days should have been paid at the time taken(normal payroll)  one issue is there is no legislation(other than min wage) on what the pay rate should be, normal would be the expected rate but should be confirmed before doing them. 

I would not be as bothered as some over this as they are struggling for staff and the issues are closely related to pregnancy.

they need reminding they have the liability as a result of maternity and covid, thereis a solution to avoiding the impact of the short period to take the holiday by using the covid legislation to spread the holiday out over a further 2 years.

If planning another child any time soon that could impact the available windows to take this holiday.

(I know someone that is on their 3rd B2B pregnancy, with maternity leave and accrued holiday they are only in a few weeks a year).

Thrugelmir

mumf said:

Thrugelmir said:

matticus7 said:

They are a small business and struggling to keep staff levels normal (not our problem)

That depends on how much you value your job. These are challenging times. Never wise to show a negative attitude. 

It’s not right though. 

If the business fails then everyone loses their job. No one intentionally plays games. Survival often means making all sorts of difficult decisions. None of which are personal. Just down to neccessity. Employees always have the choice of leaving and going to where the grass is greener. Everyone is expendable. 

Savvy_Sue

Definitely should have been paid something for the KIT days: https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/keeping-in-touch-days/ and scroll down. 

If she's willing to be a pushover, there won't be much you can do about it, but I'd probably start with a letter, pointing out that the KIT days should have been paid, and that the payment of holiday pay should not have been made without her agreement - effectively they ended her maternity leave early - was she due to take any unpaid? It should be straightforward to work out how much leave she is entitled to, how much they have 'paid out', and therefore how much is left, and to put in a formal request to book at least some of that. At the same time she could formally request that any leave she cannot take should be carried forward to next year. 

getmore4less

April-Jan would suggest no extended.

Savvy_Sue

getmore4less said:

April-Jan would suggest no extended.

I agree, but always worth checking!

getmore4less

Also worth pointing out where there is going to be an obvious accumulation of holiday with a restricted period to take it always worth preemptive action like discussions as soon as the situation is known.

For maternity before taking it.
For sick as soon as it becomes known it may be long term.