Holiday pay on leaving job.

[MrMarlow]

Hey everyone,

My partner recently left her job and her holiday pay is questionable. On her payslip, it simply states "Holiday pay payment" and has a value assigned. No breakdown, etc, but either way, we believe this to be incorrect. That is unless our understanding is incorrect.

1. Holiday accrued during covid

During covid, the business she worked for was hit directly and was closed for the duration. She had 21 days holiday in the last lockdown, which couldn't be used within the year. As a result of this, she couldn't technically take holiday as she wasn't working and was furloughed.

I know this is a grey area because all furlough time was effectively time off, however, the business owner asked her to go in one day and sign a piece of paper to take her holidays for the year. I drove her there and pointed out that under my understanding, he couldn't do what he was about to try to do, which was;

He wants people to take all their holiday, so in her case, 21 days, and everyone would start work the following Monday. This was the Wednesday before they started work, I believe.

I believe I've read somewhere, which I can not find again, that if any holiday was forced to be taken, the same amount of time requested to be taken, needed to be given as notice to take the said holiday - therefore, she needed 4 weeks to notice to take her 4 weeks holiday at the managements request.

Can anyone point me to the right section for this, and confirm if those days should therefore be a part of the final pay package as she left the job?

2. Holiday Pay / Furlough

During this year, she has taken 2 weeks off work due to getting covid. She has it quite bad and was bed-bound for over a week, then recovered over the next week. The business said they would put it down as a holiday. On this point, I have a few questions;

1. Could furlough money be counted towards holiday pay? The pay was furlough plus a "holiday top-up", which they paid.

2. Does it count as a holiday as the government criteria for holiday pay during covid conform with "The underlying principle is that a worker should not be financially worse off through taking holiday." was not adhered to? The furlough + "holiday top-up" was below her pay, pre-covid / furlough.

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Sorry for the essay.

[ULA]

1. Holiday accrued during covid

If I am udnerstanding correctly your wife was on furlough and before she returned to work effectively coming off the furlough scheme, she was asked to agree to having taken 21 days of holiday as part of the time that she was on furlough.

The relevant legislation for an employer to give twice as much notice to an employee as the number of days required to be taken holiday is set out in the Working Time Regulations 1998 section 15.

In addition if holiday was being requested by either employer or employee and the individual was on furlough at the time, the pay specifically for the holiday period had to be paid at 100% of salary not at the 80% furlough rate.

2. Holiday Pay / Furlough

1. Bit confused about this question since if she was off sick in 2022, furlough has ceased. Depending on when your wife was off in 2022, if it was up to 17 March 2022 then the company could claim up to 2 weeks SSP back from the governement, however for your wife she would get SSP from day 4 of being off and then depends on whether the company pays in addition to SSP as to what she would have received in pay.

2. I think I have answered this question above but for clarity if holiday was being requested by either employer or employee and the individual was on furlough at the time, the pay specifically for the holiday period had to be paid at 100% of salary not at the 80% furlough rate.

[MrMarlow]

Hey ULA.

I'm going to try to keep this shorter;

In response to #1
She shouldn't have lost holidays because they did not give notice equal to the holiday period to be taken - is my understanding of this to be correct?

and #2

I actually meant 2021, not 2022. I meant the work year (April to April). My apologies for being unclear.

My point was whether the holidays should be removed from her holiday allowance given the government states that "a worker should not be financially worse off through taking holiday.", however when she had COVID, the company put it as holiday and removed the days from her allowance. They paid 80% from furlough (Shows as "Furlough Payment" on the payslip), and then they paid less than the 20% that would be required to make it 100%.

Therefore, she was financially worse off by taking holiday, which therefore doesn't meet the criteria for it being a holiday, right?

I guess I'm curious if what he did was illegal, and whether she should be credited the holiday days back, or whether we should just be requesting the difference.

Thanks again

[ULA]

#1
No, they did not provide the correct notice, however this was not raised by our wife at the time and she you seem to indicate she signed a document agreeing to taking the 21 days holiday whilst on furlough. If this was in 2020 or 2021 bit difficult to argue the point now.

#2
If your wife was off with Covid then this is not holiday it is sick leave and she should have been paid in accordance with the company sick pay policy. If there was an agreement to take it as holiday then this should be at 100% of salary.