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I will try to sum this up as it is a matter which has several parts, many meetings, emails and phone calls. I am not sure where to turn except to expensive legal advice. What I am finding is that there is no actual body to report to if your employer is doing something badly wrong.
ACAS and CAB both tell me they can inform me of my rights, but can't offer advice or a calculation. I tried to join UNISON but they won't look at a case which has already started. I can't go to my HR department because they are part of the error. My employer could say I am entitled to zero holidays per year if they wanted to and I can't find anywhere where I could actually report that to.
I will lay out my case so far, but I'll skip what I think is unnecessary.
I work 4 days per week. 6 hours per day. 24 hours per week. These are my normal working hours.
Our full time employees work 5 days per week. 37 hours per week.
Full time holiday allowance in my contract states: 23 days leave, plus 2 additional statutory days assigned by the employer, plus 8 bank holidays. (pro rata for part time employees)
This gives a total of 33 days for a full time employee.
I was originally told I have 18 days of annual leave to take. I have now been at the company 4 years and continually questioned how bank holidays should be applied to this.
I have now been in a small battle with the company and their legal team for several months after being told various things, like, you get bank holiday if your shift lands on a bank holiday, you are entitled to all bank holidays, you are entitled to no bank holidays at all. All the confusion led me to look deeper into the matter when I became manager and in charge of monitoring leave.
I discovered that 18 days is below the statutory minimum.
I discovered that the calculation they used gives a figure of 18.4 which they have rounded down to 18.
I discovered that my pro rata amount of holiday should actually be 26.4 days (based on 4 days per week)
I have been given the following answers since more formally bringing this up with my employer.
24 hours divided by 37 hours = 0.6486 X 33 days = 21.4 days leave (this method is totally incorrect as they have converted hours to days in an impossible way)
Then I was told it's 21.4 minus the 10 statutory days giving me 11.4 bookable days, and if I happen to be working a bank holiday I get that off too.
Then I was told it's 22.4 days because this is the statutory minimum.
Then told actually 26.4 is the correct figure but it's 26.4 - 8 = 18.4, "this is how we arrived at 18.4 days in the first place" because you don't get bank holidays.
Then I was told 26.4 is the correct figure and bank holidays are not deducted unless your shift lands on it.
Then, it got more complicated and the employer said there was an administrative error when altering the contract some time ago.
The contracts formerly read (for a full time employee, pro rata for part time) 21 + 2 + 8 = 31
They intended to simplify it to read 23 + 8 bank holidays = 31
But accidentally left in the "plus 2" on my contract
Therefore giving my contract, 23+2+8 = 33*
They now say that 31 days is the starting point, not 33.
And since we are closed on bank holidays they don't include them in my calculation.
Giving 23 divided by 5 times 4 = 18.4 days leave for me. They now say this is how they reached 18.4 days.
Keep in mind our full time employees take the bank holiday as paid leave. And other part time staff who work on Mondays take the bank holiday as paid leave.
The employer sent me a letter saying, thank you for bringing to attention the mistake in your contract, there is no error in the calculation. We will update your SOP. A new statement of particulars will be issued to reflect the change.
I want to challenge this on several fronts.
WTR = 5.6 weeks minimum statutory leave for all employees. 4 days per week = 22.4 days. 18 days is below even that.
UNFAIR TREATMENT Our contract is the equivalent of 6.6 weeks for full time workers, and I am being given 4.5 weeks of leave.
UNFAIR TREATMENT Say my shifts are on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, on a week where there is a bank holiday everbody else takes a day off, and a day of leave is deducted. I work my normal 4 days and STILL get a day deducted. In a verbal conversation the employer said, "you are still getting a day off though because you are no in that day"!
ROUNDING DOWN Even if 18.4 was correct, they have rounded me DOWN to 18 days. An employees leave may be rounded up but not down according to TUC and GOV.UK
CHANGING CONTRACT WITHOUT AGREEMENT - issuing a new statement of particulars with an altered holiday allowance. No flexibility clause, no consultation period, no notice period, no agreement from the employee.
On a side note, if I were to accept the updated SOP I would be entitled to a pro rata amount of 31 days (23 +8) giving a total of 24.8 days leave.*
My question is, am I wrong? Are they? What can I do if they continue to refuse to calculate it correctly?
This has cause a great deal of stress in recent months, and a lot of tension at work since I am challenging my HR department, my line manager, the boss of the company and their legal team - with no back up.
Many Thanks in advance!!! I hope you can help, whoever you are.
*
ACAS and CAB both tell me they can inform me of my rights, but can't offer advice or a calculation. I tried to join UNISON but they won't look at a case which has already started. I can't go to my HR department because they are part of the error. My employer could say I am entitled to zero holidays per year if they wanted to and I can't find anywhere where I could actually report that to.
I will lay out my case so far, but I'll skip what I think is unnecessary.
I work 4 days per week. 6 hours per day. 24 hours per week. These are my normal working hours.
Our full time employees work 5 days per week. 37 hours per week.
Full time holiday allowance in my contract states: 23 days leave, plus 2 additional statutory days assigned by the employer, plus 8 bank holidays. (pro rata for part time employees)
This gives a total of 33 days for a full time employee.
I was originally told I have 18 days of annual leave to take. I have now been at the company 4 years and continually questioned how bank holidays should be applied to this.
I have now been in a small battle with the company and their legal team for several months after being told various things, like, you get bank holiday if your shift lands on a bank holiday, you are entitled to all bank holidays, you are entitled to no bank holidays at all. All the confusion led me to look deeper into the matter when I became manager and in charge of monitoring leave.
I discovered that 18 days is below the statutory minimum.
I discovered that the calculation they used gives a figure of 18.4 which they have rounded down to 18.
I discovered that my pro rata amount of holiday should actually be 26.4 days (based on 4 days per week)
I have been given the following answers since more formally bringing this up with my employer.
24 hours divided by 37 hours = 0.6486 X 33 days = 21.4 days leave (this method is totally incorrect as they have converted hours to days in an impossible way)
Then I was told it's 21.4 minus the 10 statutory days giving me 11.4 bookable days, and if I happen to be working a bank holiday I get that off too.
Then I was told it's 22.4 days because this is the statutory minimum.
Then told actually 26.4 is the correct figure but it's 26.4 - 8 = 18.4, "this is how we arrived at 18.4 days in the first place" because you don't get bank holidays.
Then I was told 26.4 is the correct figure and bank holidays are not deducted unless your shift lands on it.
Then, it got more complicated and the employer said there was an administrative error when altering the contract some time ago.
The contracts formerly read (for a full time employee, pro rata for part time) 21 + 2 + 8 = 31
They intended to simplify it to read 23 + 8 bank holidays = 31
But accidentally left in the "plus 2" on my contract
Therefore giving my contract, 23+2+8 = 33*
They now say that 31 days is the starting point, not 33.
And since we are closed on bank holidays they don't include them in my calculation.
Giving 23 divided by 5 times 4 = 18.4 days leave for me. They now say this is how they reached 18.4 days.
Keep in mind our full time employees take the bank holiday as paid leave. And other part time staff who work on Mondays take the bank holiday as paid leave.
The employer sent me a letter saying, thank you for bringing to attention the mistake in your contract, there is no error in the calculation. We will update your SOP. A new statement of particulars will be issued to reflect the change.
I want to challenge this on several fronts.
WTR = 5.6 weeks minimum statutory leave for all employees. 4 days per week = 22.4 days. 18 days is below even that.
UNFAIR TREATMENT Our contract is the equivalent of 6.6 weeks for full time workers, and I am being given 4.5 weeks of leave.
UNFAIR TREATMENT Say my shifts are on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, on a week where there is a bank holiday everbody else takes a day off, and a day of leave is deducted. I work my normal 4 days and STILL get a day deducted. In a verbal conversation the employer said, "you are still getting a day off though because you are no in that day"!
ROUNDING DOWN Even if 18.4 was correct, they have rounded me DOWN to 18 days. An employees leave may be rounded up but not down according to TUC and GOV.UK
CHANGING CONTRACT WITHOUT AGREEMENT - issuing a new statement of particulars with an altered holiday allowance. No flexibility clause, no consultation period, no notice period, no agreement from the employee.
On a side note, if I were to accept the updated SOP I would be entitled to a pro rata amount of 31 days (23 +8) giving a total of 24.8 days leave.*
My question is, am I wrong? Are they? What can I do if they continue to refuse to calculate it correctly?
This has cause a great deal of stress in recent months, and a lot of tension at work since I am challenging my HR department, my line manager, the boss of the company and their legal team - with no back up.
Many Thanks in advance!!! I hope you can help, whoever you are.
*
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