Employment contract and leave query

[jorainbow]

Hi all

I hope someone can help with this query. The facts are I was employed from 23/10/2013 to 23/2/2014. My annual notice in a complete year from 1/9 to 31/8 would be 30 days plus 8 bank holidays.

My contract states "Your holiday entitlement is 26 Days per leave year starting from 1 September each year (entitlement accrues in the first or last year of service at the rate of 1/12 of entitlement per completed calendar month)" 26 is actually the pro-rata amount for the first year just to add to the confusion!

They have basically advised me that they will not pay any annual leave for the 1st to 23rd Feb (however they have used my start date as the first day for the calculations which isn't a complete calendar month. I am totally confused! I have been told I should only have taken 8.5 days so had to pay 1 day back. Can anyone tell me what my entitlement should be? Many thanks

[Tools]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

As that period covered Christmas holidays (officially 3 Bank Holidays ) it makes it a little confusing to calculate.

Are they saying that you took 9.5 days leave and did this include any Bank Holidays as described above?

[jorainbow]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Hi - yes I took 9.5 days none of which were bank holidays

[Tools]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Ok thanks, makes it easier.

26 days entitlement in the first years employment

4 complete months employment October, November, December, January ( should only be 3 as you did not work a complete month in October )

26 (annual entitlement) / 12 ( pro-rata monthly entitlement) x 4 (months worked) = 8.6666 (Rounded down to 8.5)

26/12x4=8.5 days entitlement, their calculations are correct I'm afraid.

[jorainbow]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Their calculation used 30 days which is why I am confused - and also the GOVUK website states contractual clauses in a contract don't take away from the fact that statutory holiday accrues for the whole of the employment or is this not the case?

30 days entitlement (for a full leave year)
-------------------------- X 101 (days worked) = 8.3 days
365

Confused.com!!!!

[Tools]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Your calculation says 8.3 days, round up to 8.5, still 1 day less than the 9.5 days leave you took

[teaboy2]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

the 8.5 days tools got is based on your 4 months employment, so includes your first 30 days of employment too.

[ostell]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Using the calculator on the .gov site gives an entitlement of 9.5 days for the time worked, assuming 5 days/week.

They should not be ignoring the incomplete month of February, that would be breaking the regulations. They are breaking the regulations anyway in only offering 26 days, for a normal 5 day week this is a regulatory 28 days per year. https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights

Hope you get your day's money

[jorainbow]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Thanks Ostell - the 26 days was pro rata - the correct annual amount was 30 days. I did speak to ACAS today and they confirmed the weeks in Feb should have been included and suggested the same calculator you used and I also got 9.5 days - all very confusing though!!!

[ostell]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

The company can only improve on the holiday time that is in the regulations, they cannot contract you for less. You are entitled to what is specified in the regulations.

[teaboy2]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

I think the confusion was with the 26 days pro-rata - which is not the actual number of days of entitlement for a full year, as that appears to be 30 days. 26 days is just a percentage of the 30 days.

We need to know how you employer calculated your holiday entitlement and how they came to saying it was just 26 days pro-rata. If you ask them for their calculations they will hopefully provide them, it be unreasonable for them not too.

How many days a week do you work?

[jorainbow]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Thanks all.

30 days plus bank holidays is the full holiday year entitlement 1st Sept to 31 August.
26 days plus bank holidays is the amount I was entitled to as started part way through the holiday year.

Their calculation was: 30 days/365 times 101 days (worked from 23 October to 31st Jan) = 8.3 days. I left on the 23 Feb. I hope this clarifies thank you

[Tools]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

If that was their calculation, what was yours based on to come up with 9.5 days?

[ostell]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

I presume that the 101 days is the number of days that you worked, and 5 days per week. Their calculation is wrong. You have been employed by them for 121 days therefore your holiday entitlement is (30/365) * 121 = 9.9 days. They cannot give you less entitlement than is in regulations (which gives 9.5). If you used their method for calculating holidays for a full year then nobody would get their full entitlement as days worked/365 will always be less than 1.

Tools: the 9.5 days is the number of days calculated using the calculator on the .gov.uk website, and using the statutory 28 days holiday per year.
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

[Tools]

Re: Employment contract and leave query

Thanks for clearing that up for me ostell