Human Error

redmalc

Good Afternoon 
A friend of mine commenced a new job 7 months ago , she works 4 days a week and the contract she received regarding holiday entitlement was very misleading because it said Pro Rata for part time workers so she e mailed HR about the holiday entitlement and after a number of e mails received an E Mail stating she would receive 23 days. Based  on that e mail the contract was signed.
last week she was challenged by her manager on the number of days holiday she had , and after a discussion she was told she was entitled to 17 days only so she sent the e mail trail to HR which clearly states the 23 days holiday was the entitlement.
Today she has had a telephone conversation with HR and they are claiming it was Human Error by an employee who responded to the e mail prior to signing the contract , she would never have agreed to join the company if she had been told it was 17 days only.
They have told her she is only entitled to the 17 and they are not prepared to compromise or negotiate, basic take it or leave it .
I am unsure if she can take legal action against the company because they have misled her and it’s took 7 months before it’s become an issue because she as been told she now has to work over Xmas and she as 2 small kids 

El_Torro

Essentially she has two choices:

1. Leave the company
2. Accept the reduced amount of holiday

Since she has been with the company less than 2 years the employer can tell her to leave without giving a reason or justification. 

I am no lawyer so not sure about the idea of taking legal action. My belief is that if legal action is taken the compensation will be next to nothing, if any compensation is given at all. Even if she wins in court they can still dismiss her. 

MattMattMattUK

redmalc said:

Good Afternoon 
A friend of mine commenced a new job 7 months ago , she works 4 days a week and the contract she received regarding holiday entitlement was very misleading because it said Pro Rata for part time workers so she e mailed HR about the holiday entitlement and after a number of e mails received an E Mail stating she would receive 23 days. Based  on that e mail the contract was signed.
last week she was challenged by her manager on the number of days holiday she had , and after a discussion she was told she was entitled to 17 days only so she sent the e mail trail to HR which clearly states the 23 days holiday was the entitlement.
Today she has had a telephone conversation with HR and they are claiming it was Human Error by an employee who responded to the e mail prior to signing the contract , she would never have agreed to join the company if she had been told it was 17 days only.
They have told her she is only entitled to the 17 and they are not prepared to compromise or negotiate, basic take it or leave it .
I am unsure if she can take legal action against the company because they have misled her and it’s took 7 months 

Almost certainly not, they probably forgot to add the "pro-rata" part, also remember that until she has been employed for two years, or the law gets changed at some point next year, she has limited employment protections and they can end her employment for any reason so long as it is not due to a protected characteristic. Attempting to take legal action against an employer will almost always result in them terminating the employment.

redmalc said:

before it’s become an issue because she as been told she now has to work over Xmas and she as 2 small kids 

That slightly depends, had she already requested those days off and had they been approved, or was she just hoping she would get them off? If the former then she might be able to argue a one off exception, or possibly take them out of next year's allowance, if she does it in a careful way. If the latter then she has no leg to stand on as they would have been under no obligation to grant them anyway.

sheenas

Pro rata holiday is a term for calculating holiday entitlement in proportion to the time a person works for part time workers. The contract most have say therefore what the contractual holiday entitlement is for full time works? 

Isthisforreal99

Ask for an explanation of how the 17 days were calculated.

Are the 4 days worked, 4 'full' days. How many hours do they work compared to a full timer?

elsien

Having small children does not exempt you from Christmas working, if an expectation for staff to work over Christmas comes as part of the job. 

Even if she had the leave, she may still not be allowed to take it at that particular time. Many organisations only allow a certain number of staff off at a particular time to keep the service running.  Always used to annoy me when my colleagues with children expected to get priority at certain times. It’s a negotiation, not a right. 

vacheron

Any compensation (assuming the company dismisses her on hearing this news) will reflect her loss. As she is "losing" 6 days holiday per year, pro rata for the 7 months she was employed would be a loss of 3-4 days of paid leave. Lets say they give her a full day of compensation for each, that's 3-4 days pay. Is it worth the battle?

If the amount of holiday is so important, has she asked to see if they will let her take an extra 6 days per year unpaid? or does she want to lose this job for the sake of 1 weeks pay?

Also, as above, check that the days stated are not calculated as 17x a "normal" working day. 

My wife works 20 hours part time, 5 hours per day, 4 days per week. She gets the same holidays as everyone else, but her "day" is only 5 hours pay, whereas a normal employee is paid for 8 hours. However if she changed her contract to working 2x10 hour days per week, she would get half as many "days" holiday, but the same number of weeks time off.  

p00hsticks

17 days does not seem a lot if she's working four full days a week. 
I'd suggest she runs the numbers through the gov.uk calculator here
Calculate holiday entitlement - GOV.UK  

superbigal

Sounds very like it might be 17 Days to choose Plus 6 bank holidays ?  As 23 is the statutory minimum in effect for a 4 day week.  So still 23 in total as per initial allocation.

MayDogsandCoffee

Has she applied for leave over Christmas and been turned down?  It seems there are two questions in this: 1. Christmas leave, 2. Number of leave days.  But as someone else has pointed out having children does not mean an entitlement to having Christmas leave.

born_again

Could it be that the 17 days is due to her start date, & 23 would be a full years worth?
So guessing they started in May & holiday year is Jan to Dec.