Resignation: payment in lieu of holiday

Ditzy_Mitzy

My friend is shortly to be giving notice to her employer, and will do so having taken very little holiday in the preceding leave year.  The holiday year starts on January 1st and about a week's worth of this year's accrual plus carry over from 2021 has been used since then.  My friend calculates that she will be left with approximately ten days' entitlement, effectively a fortnight, to take in the notice period.  

Whether the holiday is taken or not is irrelevant to my friend; she is to have the best part of a month off after the notice period, so has no need for extra time at home.  She also doesn't   What would be more useful is payment in lieu of the holiday.  She was thinking of making that point in her resignation letter, suggesting that it may be in the company's interest owing to significant amounts of holiday time already having been booked by her immediate colleagues in the relevant period.  

The friend has been told that employers tend not to like paying in lieu of holiday.  Is that true?  And is the friend on a hiding to nothing?  

74jax

She won't know until she asks, every company / manager /situation will be different. 

TELLIT01

Many factors will determine whether an employer wants somebody who has resigned to work notice or not, so there is no 'normal'.  The choice is entirely the employer's to make.  They may want all, some or none, leave taken during the notice period.

lola1411

Some contracts will have a clause about taking holiday within notice period. Totally at company discretion otherwise and it is just a conversation to be agreed once she has actually resigned. They could insist she takes it or they could add to final salary. There's no general preference with companies unless someone is on gardening leave and not in the office anyway where there might be  less inclination to bolt on to the end of leave. She just needs to raise the holiday left and offer to work to the last day with a holiday payment in lieu instead. 

Marcon

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

My friend is shortly to be giving notice to her employer, and will do so having taken very little holiday in the preceding leave year.  The holiday year starts on January 1st and about a week's worth of this year's accrual plus carry over from 2021 has been used since then.  My friend calculates that she will be left with approximately ten days' entitlement, effectively a fortnight, to take in the notice period.  

Whether the holiday is taken or not is irrelevant to my friend; she is to have the best part of a month off after the notice period, so has no need for extra time at home.  She also doesn't   What would be more useful is payment in lieu of the holiday.  She was thinking of making that point in her resignation letter, suggesting that it may be in the company's interest owing to significant amounts of holiday time already having been booked by her immediate colleagues in the relevant period.  

The friend has been told that employers tend not to like paying in lieu of holiday.  Is that true?  And is the friend on a hiding to nothing?  

By whom? Someone who knows what they're talking about? Somehow I doubt it - whether employers like it or not is irrelevant; if holiday is owed at the time of leaving, it normally has to be paid.

400ixl

Marcon said:

By whom? Someone who knows what they're talking about? Somehow I doubt it - whether employers like it or not is irrelevant; if holiday is owed at the time of leaving, it normally has to be paid.

An employee can be made to take the holiday in the notice period if enough time is available to invoke it, so it is necessarily a case of it being paid. The employer may require them to take annual leave on particular days by giving them notice, specifying the day or days on which they must take leave. The employer must give the employee at least twice as many days' notice as the number of days' leave it requires them to take. For example, if the employer requires the employee to take one week's annual leave at a particular time, it must give them at least two weeks' advance notice.

So to a degree it depends on how long the notice period is.

getmore4less

400ixl said:

Marcon said:

By whom? Someone who knows what they're talking about? Somehow I doubt it - whether employers like it or not is irrelevant; if holiday is owed at the time of leaving, it normally has to be paid.

An employee can be made to take the holiday in the notice period if enough time is available to invoke it, so it is necessarily a case of it being paid. The employer may require them to take annual leave on particular days by giving them notice, specifying the day or days on which they must take leave. The employer must give the employee at least twice as many days' notice as the number of days' leave it requires them to take. For example, if the employer requires the employee to take one week's annual leave at a particular time, it must give them at least two weeks' advance notice.

So to a degree it depends on how long the notice period is.

Which is often overridden by contractual terms.

Some standard statutory notice is overridden by simple terms like holidays have to approved.

Undervalued

400ixl said:

Marcon said:

By whom? Someone who knows what they're talking about? Somehow I doubt it - whether employers like it or not is irrelevant; if holiday is owed at the time of leaving, it normally has to be paid.

An employee can be made to take the holiday in the notice period if enough time is available to invoke it, so it is necessarily a case of it being paid. The employer may require them to take annual leave on particular days by giving them notice, specifying the day or days on which they must take leave. The employer must give the employee at least twice as many days' notice as the number of days' leave it requires them to take. For example, if the employer requires the employee to take one week's annual leave at a particular time, it must give them at least two weeks' advance notice.

So to a degree it depends on how long the notice period is.

Yes, but if there is a term in the employee's contract saying that they may be required to use up holiday during their notice period, the the employer is deemed to have already given the necessary notice to force the employee to take the holiday. There is case law to support this.

Such a clause is very common.

Even if there isn't and the employer wants to be difficult, they can repeatedly give two days notice to take a single day's holiday with just one day back at work in-between. That is unlikely to be welcome and the employee may just decide they prefer to take the holiday in one go!

400ixl

getmore4less said:

400ixl said:

Which is often overridden by contractual terms.

Some standard statutory notice is overridden by simple terms like holidays have to approved.

Lost me there, as it would be the approving entity (the employer) making the employee take holiday approval is pretty much guaranteed. It's not the employee who has to approve.

Andy_L

It is going to depend if the employer would rather get the full notice period as work out of the employee (eg to finish a certain project or ensure a good handover) or get them out of the door ASAP

SensibleSarah

My employers have always preferred that I work the full notice and get paid any accrued holiday on my final pay day - although once or twice it's been 'forgotten' and I've had to chase. Think this will depend mainly on the industry and seniority of the role. When I left my last role, I had some days booked before I handed my notice in (due to be taken whilst on notice) that I asked to cancel because I needed the money more than the days off. I was prepared for them to say no though - but they didn't as it was in their best interests to get as much work out of me as possible before I finished.