DD has not been paid for any of her annual leave, is there anything she can do?

[BobButtonsismycat]

DD17 works at a well known UK store since November 2024.

Let's call them 'The Mange'!

Before her new manager started in May this year she had no issues at all, however, since then several problems have arisen including this latest irk.

DD works 4 hours each on a Saturday and Sunday. She has to request all annual leave via an app. The manager will not accept requests if she has already made up the rota which is often completed a month or two ahead of time, fair enough, that's not the issue. Some time ago DD requested a weekend off each in June, July and again last weekend. These were all accepted on the app by the manager. However, when DD has checked her recent pay she noticed that she has not been paid for the June and July time off. When she asked the manager about this she told dd is was dd's fault. Apparently she should have marked down the actual hours requested off, so 14.00-18.00 on 26/07/25 instead of simply marking down the 26th July etc and therefore she will not get paid and she can not do anything about last week's time off either so will not get paid for this. The manager knows full well DD only ever works 4 hours on each day and usually the exact same hours too, surely she could have either corrected this herself at the time of request or asked dd to re-enter the details correctly, how was dd supposed to know this if no one informs her? She has spoken to a couple of the other younger ones and the same has been done to them.

Before this manager started in May this had never been an issue, the previous manager would accept the dates DD requested and she was paid accordingly.

The issue going forward is that DD has some AL still to take but the manager has already made up the rotas for the next couple of months and the staff are not allowed to take any time off during their busy Christmas period, her holiday entitlement starts from January to end of December and any annual leave not taken is lost.

Can DD request they back pay this AL taken (and approved) or will she have to see this as a life lesson?

Sorry, I don't have much employment experience as I have been self employed for years so not sure on the laws although I am planning on contacting ACAS today to see if they can advise.

I bet theyve conveniently the hours from her accrued holiday - have they?

This will be entirely system done if Mango

The DD will have been required to input hours
or tick the box to say she had the day off

she did the latter. This wasn’t the case

OP says her DD input her leave in exactly the same way she had always done and it was never a problem until the new manager arrived.

If the system has changed then it is the manager's job to ensure that everyone is aware of the correct procedure.

Having shit systems isn't a defence to breaking employment law and it certainly doesn't mean they are entitled to say, "oh well, what a shame, you're not getting paid".

This has been one of the reasons we have held back until now. There have been several issues, not just this one. This new manager is not a particular nice person, so we are treating gently for DD's sake as she wants to hold on until she finds something else (which is very difficult in our area atm).

We will tread gently to start with.

I would strongly advise that you raise this as a grievance and copy HR in at the same time. She has 9 months employment - so I would expect her not to see 10 months. I may be wrong but the managers approach doesn't leave me with any hope they will take their mistake on the chin and fix this. They might fix it but fire her!

If she is dismissed then raising it as a grievance leaves her the opportunity to claim unfair dismissal for asserting a statutory right which does not require 2 years continuous employment. Since she has already raised it with her manager and been told she won't be paid she has done was is required before raising a formal grievance.

Unless the system changed when the old manager left at the beginning of the year then that makes no sense, dd has always entered her AL this way.

Good advice.

And even if that is the case, if neither the old manager nor the new manager communicated the change properly to their staff, it is their cock up and they need to fix it. And the manager should have proactively dealt with it the very first time someone entered their annual leave incorrectly.

If she works 4 hours a day they should know this

OP get her to put in a grievance. Unfortunately you do get these tinpot Hitlers who work in mediocre jobs like supervisors in retail which is all they are capable of and let the “power” go to their heads, and pick on young people. I bet she wouldn’t pull the same shit on a middle aged woman. My son works in Ikea and has had supervisors trying to pull similar stunts - most notably trying to cancel the day off he’d had approved a year in advance for his 18th birthday and putting him on a 9 - 8 shift.

This is an unlawful deduction of wages. I don’t think internal processes matter - it is for the company to pay her correctly and her holiday was approved. Bear in mind the 3 month time limit to bring a tribunal claim (although I think that will likely run from the last unlawful deduction). Companies often get holiday pay wrong. The statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks (but of course the fact that she is part time will be factored into that).

I really hope that won't be the case but nothing would surprise me with this manager, she is not well liked. She has done this to several other former employees that dd is still in contact with but they are young and obviously unaware there are laws protecting them.

The ACAS adviser recommended that we come back to him if things become unsettled.

Do the others still work there?

There are only three (including dd) from the original 8 who all started together with dd in November last year. She is in contact with two who have left.

So surely this has happened many many many times since the new manager started as the DD’s colleagues have presumably taken annual leave since she started too.

We aren’t talking about a little family business here.

We are talking about… Mango

I mean do the ones who have also had unlawful deductions from their pay still work there? Because if not, they'd really have nothing to lose by kicking off now and demanding they get paid what they are owed.

I thought we might have been talking about The Range, but same thing applies.

DD has only spoken to one other colleague who still works there, this is happening to her too. DD is going to ask her more tomorrow when she's at work.

Yes it's The Range.

Grievance, then if no luck an application to tribunal (easily done yourself online for something this straightforwards) This was the only way I got back over 1k owed in annual leave when I left a previous employer.

Sounds like the original manager corrected the error of not inputting hours

my last manager with previous company wouldn’t correct timesheet errors as he said it’s your responsibility and refused to spend 2 hours a week manually checking everyone’s time sheet because they couldn’t be bothered to fill it in right
and our time sheet was our personal responsibility

How are the staff supposed to know it's an error if no one has ever told them?

Granted that’s the issue but OP asked why she got paid with one manager and not the other

I’m confused that apparently multiple people aren’t being paid for annual leave but no one has said or done anything.

This.
What stupidity from the manager!’ Reads more like something from the Victorian era than 2025 😂
I also think your dd should look for a new job with an employer who behaves like an employer in business in 2025..

But if you were a new manager and several of your staff were making the same mistake, wouldn't you make sure they all knew the correct procedure?

This manager is: (a) aware there is an issue, (b) doing nothing to resolve it or prevent it from happening again, and (c) telling staff that nothing can be done and they just won't get paid for their annual leave, which is illegal.

This is 100% on the manager, whose job it is to manage stuff like this.

The manager is deliberately pulling the wool over the eyes of young staff members who don't know what their rights are. And for what reason? Just because they can't be bothered to sort it out? Or because they are a dickhead who gets some sort of perverse pleasure out of denying young staff members the pay they are legally owed?