manager says im not entitled to holidays or holiday pay

[jack1966]

i work as a sessional and work approx 3 to 4 days a week, ive worked at the same place for 5 years and have never received any holidays or holiday pay. i queried this and manager abruptly says im not entitled, i think i am, iv just phoned h.r who says £1.20 should be added to my wages for days worked during month. nothing says this at all, h.r. says shes going to have a look and get back to me, any advice ?

[lbruk]

hi,

 

it very much depends on what your contract says, if depends on what kind of employee you are considered to be. For example, if you have no "fixed" contractual hours - then your holiday pay is paid over an average of how many hours to you work over 12 weeks, or something like that.

 

They may just pay you for your holidays, and the days off you have are considered your "holidays"

 

However you are entitled to holiday and for an explanation on how it works in that company.

[jack1966]

apparently its in my set wages although it doesnt specify, is that right ?

[lbruk]

You need to have a look at your contract, something does not sound right to me here.

[renegadeimp]

Part time workers including seasonal and agency now have the same rights to paid holidays the same as full time workers do.

[lbruk]

Indeed they do, however companies can choose to allocate or pay it in different ways. We need to know how this company deals with holidays (or not as the case may be)

[mariefab]

I agree with Ibruk, assuming that you are an employee or a worker this isn't right.

So far, it seems like 'rolled-up' holiday pay.

 

It was decided at the European court level some years ago that 'rolled up' holiday pay was unlawful. Mainly because the idea of rolled-up holiday pay is that you put aside the part of your wages paid for holidays yourself in order to cover the periods when you take the time off.

All very well in theory, but in practice people may spend their wages as they go leaving no money to cover their holidays. Therefore, they'd be less likely to take the time off.

Given that the reason for paid holiday entitlement is for rest and recuperation from work; any practice that discourages people from taking it should be unlawful.

So the verdict reinforced that holiday pay should be paid at the time that the holiday is taken.

 

However, it was an unsatisfactory verdict in some respects; because it also stated that, in the event of a claim, credit should be given to the employer for any payments they made for holiday entitlement.

This may have been intended as a temporary measure to last until individual countries amended their own legislation to make rolled-up unlawful.

However, the UK Working Time Regulations haven't been changed yet. I'm sure that the fact that 'rolled up' holiday pay is still used in the NHS and some local authorities etc. has nothing to do with the delay.

 

As Ibruk says, check your contract/statement of particulars to see if this describes that your holiday entitlement is included in your hourly rate of pay.

Even if you find that information in your contract, it doesn't let your employer off the hook, because it should also be stated in each of your payslips.

If the amount of your wages assigned to holiday pay isn't stated as a seperate item on your payslips how would you know how much you were supposed to be setting aside to use when you take holidays?

Edited August 20, 2012 by mariefab