Will I be paid for holiday a week into new job?

[AnxiousAnniee]

I start a new job in 4 weeks, go on a pre booked holiday in 5 weeks.

They said it's fine and wanted me to start before the holiday and they'll honour it. However I'm just wondering whether I'll actually be paid because obviously I won't have accrued any holidays. The reason why I'll need to know is because if it's unpaid I will have to cancel it.

DH says to just ask them but I don't want to come across badly before I've even started. I will need to know whether I'm actually going on holiday so that I can know whether to prepare and save spending money etc. In people's experience, does this usually get paid in lieu or something? Or is it more likely that it will be unpaid? Should I just ask?

It can vary. I started a new job and took a week off almost straight away, they paid me, but we had had a conversation about it. I didn’t just hope or assume. Technically they bent their holiday rules by letting me go before I’d accrued it. But that’s one of the reasons I was happy to take the job, they are a nice company and treats staff well.

id ask them, they’ve said yes to the leave so fair enough for you to ask if it’s paid or not, I would have asked that at the time of asking for the leave. My work place gives you a prorata amount of leave from day 1 (until end of the leave year), so in that case I’d expect it would be paid leave

@Peony654 I know I didn't even think though, I just assumed that it would be paid when they said they'd honour it. It wasn't until tonight at home when I realised that having only been there a week that may not be the case!

Nope. You will need to accrue holiday leave

You wouldn't need to accrue in my work place (but would have a pro rata'd number of days). I'd just ask.

Disagree.

You'll be paid for it, but if you quit the job they'll look at how much you've taken and how much you've accrued and you could owe them money back.

How would the above example work if you get 4 weeks a year, leave runs April to March but you want a week off at Easter? You'd be paid it.

It depends. Most employers I know of would pay it but I wouldn't ever assume that would be the case.

This wouldn’t be the case at my work, it would be paid holiday. However if you left within a set time you would have to pay some back

Thanks for the replies. How should I ask? I don't know if it will come across badly.. like hey I know I'm going on holiday a week after starting but will you pay me? Obviously I wouldn't say that but just feels awkward

I think you could just ask about your holiday entitlement for the year and how many days it would be.

Completely depends on ur contract

It'd be paid where I work. Most workplaces calculate your holiday for the year I'd of thought. Otherwise it'd be a nightmare in March or whenever the holiday year ends as everyone would have time off to shoehorn in. Obviously if you leave before you've accrued a weeks worth of holiday (two months) you'd have it deducted out your final paycheck.

Does it not say anything in your contract? Personally I'd just email and ask . "just wanted to confirm that my holiday from x to y dates will be paid as annual leave" There may be a period of probation where annual leave not allowed and any prebooked holidays are unpaid leave but I'd expect to have been told about , and have it detailed in employment contract as it'd be unusual.

Another one saying they will pay you for it but if you leave a few months later they would ask for anything not accrued at that time back

ask HR people who interviewed you, it won’t look bad on you at all. If you hadn’t told them that would be completely different but you’re good

first week can be getting access to systems, trying to figure what’s going on etc. just look at it as being able to hit the ground running when you come back from your hols

It's really lovely of you to honour my pre booked holiday. Can I just check if the days off will come out of my holiday allowance or if they will be unpaid leave? Thanks.

Are you salaried; a set annual wage? If so it'll usually be paid unless you leave the post before you accrue enough holiday time to cover it.

If you fill out a timesheet and your wages vary each month, it will probably be unpaid as you haven't actually accrued the holiday time to 'spend'.

and yes, I expect it will just out of your allowance.

I did something similar when I started a new job in May, they honoured by pre booked holidays and paid me in full, if I left before accruing the days I guess they’d deduct it from my final salary.

I would expect that it would be paid.

Technically you won't have accrued enough holiday but most companies will allow you to use the whole year's leave through the year otherwise there would be a massive glut of people wanting holiday towards year end.

From my experience yes you would be paid as long as it’s in your pro rated holiday allowance for the holiday year. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t accrued it yet. You’d only then have to pay it back if you then left the job after a period of time such that you havent accrued the week’s holiday.

Yet you said it wouldn't, as if it was a fact.

Don you need to ask? Would it make any difference if its paid or not? It likely is.

Ah thanks everyone! They're sending my contract over either tomorrow or Tuesday (due to bank holiday Monday) so I'll have a read through and see what it says and just ask if needs be

I think it would depend on the size of a company. I'm a small business owner and wouldn't pay leave that hadn't been accrued yet.

Nope. At my work, you get your full allowance from day 1 and can take it whenever you like.

In my company you would definitely be paid as you'd have holiday allowance this year. You can only use it once so nobody would care if you used it all in the first month even.

I've actually never worked anywhere that you couldn't take holiday until it had been accrued but I do know some companies have that policy.

I think you need to email just to check 'it will be paid leave, with the holiday entitlement coming from the leave that I will accrue for the remainder of this holiday year' (or something like that which makes it very clear you want to be paid but out of the holiday you will be entitled to for the rest of this year).