Untaken holiday entitlement

[Mitcher]

Hi, all

I've just read the following in another thread:

"...it is your legal responsibility to make sure that ....... the holiday is taken."

I understood that it was the employee's responsibility to manage their holiday and make sure that they took it within the year. We have the rule that holiday cannot be carried over and we have reminded, cajoled, encouraged all our staff, throughout the whole year, to take their entitlement; I'm not sure what more we could have done to get them to take it all! Despite this, a couple of employees still had some holiday left over and our policy has been that they've now lost that time. But is this correct? The amounts we're talking about range from one day to just over 3.

I'd welcome any help on this. :|

Mitcher

 

[ParfittTaylor]

You may want to check on the Business Link website which has some guidance on this but I think it depends what is in their contract. As you say there is only so much you can do and if employees haven't taken their entitlement and it states in their contract they cannot carry any over then yes they should lose those days. Have any been off sick long term or been refused leave at any point? This may change things.

 

[Tom McClelland]

My understanding is that days out of the statutory entitlement of 28 can't be carried over regardless of what the contract says or the employee and employer might wish. BUT They must be taken and cannot be simply lost or ignored. If necessary it is the employer's duty simply to tell the employee not to turn up towards the end of the holiday year, whatever inconvenience that might cause the employer. Employers aren't allowed to permit their employees to not take statutory minimum holiday.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

It's not the responsibility of the employer to ensure statutory leave is taken, although some of this can be carried forward.

Section 13 of the Working Time Regulations provides for 20 days leave. This cannot be carried forward; the rule is "use it or lose it".

Section 13A of the Working Time Regulations provides for 8 days additional leave. With agreement, this can be carried forward. Without any agreement providing carry forward, the rule is still "use it or lose it".

Even if staff have time to take their leave before the end of the year, if they haven't complied with the necessary contractual notice to take leave, they can lose it.

If the staff are on long-term sick leave, they can still opt to take the leave - preferable if they're on SSP. Otherwise, they do have to advise if they want to carry-forward leave, or again would otherwise lose it.


The only occasion an employer has to ensure leave is taken is the two weeks compulsory maternity leave.



Karl Limpert

 

[Mitcher]

Thank you everyone who replied; that's very helpful. I was aware of the difference between statutory holidays and 'extra' time. Everyone has taken their statutory entitlement, no one has been sick and no one was refused holiday that they asked for. Phew!

I personally don't know what's wrong with them; when I was an employee I always wished I had more holiday to take and had no trouble taking any days that were offered!

Thanks again.

Mitcher

 

[Steve Sellers]

If the staff are on long-term sick leave, they can still opt to take the leave - preferable if they're on SSP. Otherwise, they do have to advise if they want to carry-forward leave, or again would otherwise lose it.

And most would be wise to, they will end up with more money at the end of the month.

 

[Bevgirl]

Hello All,
I was wondering if anoyone can offer some advice on a similar situation?

I have a part-time job and usually work 25 hours. I've been with my company for 5 months. My holiday allowance is accrued and I didn't think I had many hours to take.
However, one of my colleagues has recently had to take a lot of holidays in order to fit them in before the new holiday year (beginning in April). This means I have covered his shifts and been working 48 hours per week. I asked one of my managers to see what this adds up to and I now have 55 hours of holiday to take but no time to take it in.
Senior management have been informed and asked if I can have my days off for the last few weeks as holidays so I don't lose out. The company generally doesn't carry any holidays over and doesn't offer you the money as a lump sum.
The reply was simply that this should have been discussed before and the request needs to come from my line manager who currently is on holiday, rather than the deputy manager who has been helping me. Do I have any case to make or can I simply chalk it up to experience and not expect to claim the holiday pay? It's worth about £300 which to me is a huge amount of money!
Any advice would be appreciated!
Bev

 

[Bevgirl]

Hello All,
I was wondering if anoyone can offer some advice on a similar situation?

I have a part-time job and usually work 25 hours. I've been with my company for 5 months. My holiday allowance is accrued and I didn't think I had many hours to take.
However, one of my colleagues has recently had to take a lot of holidays in order to fit them in before the new holiday year (beginning in April). This means I have covered his shifts and been working 48 hours per week. I asked one of my managers to see what this adds up to and I now have 55 hours of holiday to take but no time to take it in.
Senior management have been informed and asked if I can have my days off for the last few weeks as holidays so I don't lose out. The company generally doesn't carry any holidays over and doesn't offer you the money as a lump sum.
The reply was simply that this should have been discussed before and the request needs to come from my line manager who currently is on holiday, rather than the deputy manager who has been helping me. Do I have any case to make or can I simply chalk it up to experience and not expect to claim the holiday pay? It's worth about £300 which to me is a huge amount of money!
Any advice would be appreciated!
Bev

 

[amac]

.

Section 13 of the Working Time Regulations provides for 20 days leave. This cannot be carried forward; the rule is "use it or lose it".

Section 13A of the Working Time Regulations provides for 8 days additional leave. With agreement, this can be carried forward. Without any agreement providing carry forward, the rule is still "use it or lose it".

Even if staff have time to take their leave before the end of the year, if they haven't complied with the necessary contractual notice to take leave, they can lose it.

If the staff are on long-term sick leave, they can still opt to take the leave - preferable if they're on SSP. Otherwise, they do have to advise if they want to carry-forward leave, or again would otherwise lose it.


The only occasion an employer has to ensure leave is taken is the two weeks compulsory maternity leave.

This is correct. It's ultimately the responsibility of the employee to take their holiday entitlement.

 

[Tom McClelland]

I think it depends whether or not your company managers are decent human beings. If they are they'll make the effort to find a solution so that you aren't losing, particularly as the problem appears to have been caused in part by you working extra hours to help them out while another employee takes their holiday before the deadline. In all fairness that seems like the minimum that you should expect. If they won't help then I suppose the only consolation is that in the end what goes around, comes around. Quietly seek work elsewhere maybe.

Entirely separate, and a legal matter that others may be able to advise you on, is whether or not it was reasonable for the company to ask you to do extra hours just before the holiday year deadline, in the knowledge that you'd never be able to take the holiday accrued by working those hours. But in the end you really only want to get legal if you hate working there anyway, and think that you can get another job elsewhere, because it is so destructive of any relationship you currently have with your employer.