Companies shouldnt be able to get away with leaving you penniless

[Beth2511]

So about 6 weeks ago there was an error whoch meant technically i left the company, received all my outstanding holiday pay and p45 etc. Hadnt actually left so was reinstated. At the same time they screwed up my wages so the only pay i got was holiday pay and since i have had a bit back each week over a 4 week period.

I had two weeks booked off and knew i wouldnt have enough holiday accrued so i checked and double checked that i still wpuld have enough holiday to be paid for my time off. Lo and behold, just checked my payslip and im not getting paid a penny and despite it being confirmed to me verbally i have now been told i have no leg to stand on.

So so upset and dont know what i can do :(

[Floggingmolly]

You knew you wouldn't have enough holiday accrued? So what have they done wrong? As to not getting paid a penny; haven't you already been paid in advance?

[atticusclaw2]

I agree with PP. They've effectively paid you in advance. What happened to the payment in lieu of annual leave that you received when they mistakenly terminated your contract?

[wasonthelist]

If you checked and double checked how can you not have a leg to stand on?

[Beth2511]

No i got paid the equiv of 2 weeks holiday pay and know i would acrue more over the year so i asked them if thid meant it was still fine for me to havemy holiday else i would have cancelled it. The company said i would still be paid for it

[ZoeTurtle]

Makes sense to me - you were paid for the holidays you'd accrued up until the time you "left" but since you hadn't actually left, you knew you would accrue another 2 weeks over the holiday year. Therefore you should have been paid for your 2 weeks off.

Anyway, YANBU. What are work doing about it?

I recently received only 66% of my usual pay because of HMRC taking six months' of tax in one hit, despite the fact that it was my company who took six months to give them information for my new tax code. I was angry.

[BaronessEllaSaturday]

Got you, get them to check whether you have been reinstated properly with your full time of service or whether you have been reinstated with only service from reinstatement date. The fact you haven't been paid sounds like the system is treating you as a new starter.

[atticusclaw2]

I might be misunderstanding this but I'm an employment lawyer and the situation would seem to be as follows:

Your contract was terminated (mistakenly) and so you will have been paid your salary and received payment in lieu of any accrued but untaken annual leave. This means that all of your holiday up to and including the "date of termination" has been bought off and has effectively re-set the clock.

You are then treated by payroll as a new starter. This is correct (from a practical rather than a legal perspective) since you had been paid everything owing from your past accrual of leave - i.e. they've paid you for all the holiday you were due). This means that you have not yet accred enough holiday to take holiday.

Most companies will allow you to take the leave before it is accrued. They will pay you as normal for that leave and then you just can't take it later in the year (when you would actually have accrued it). They're not obliged to though. They could simply say no you can't take it since you haven't yet accrued it (you only accrue just over two days per month if your full time). It's odd for the company to say its unpaid leave but on a purely practical basis you're not actually out of pocket because you received the lump sum when they mistakenly terminated your contract. Your other option is to hand back that money and for them to then pay you for your forthcoming leave (which would seem a bit silly and pointless).

So yes its a legal mess but on a practical basis it seems like you have no loss (unless I've misunderstood something).