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.

@Returnofjude good grief - give it a rest, you've not read the thread properly - banging on about Mango, asking when the new manager started when that detail is in the OP. @BobButtonsismycat has been remarkably restrained in replying politely to you.

So this has NOTHING to do with the manager then

She approved the leave!!!! As in the DD’s submissions request

So why the heck complaining about the manger. Straight to payroll surely. Job done

Ok, I shall explain as well as I can (as I thought I had in my OP).....

On the company app, DD enters date she wants off. The manager looks at the request and acknowledges/accepts requested annual leave.

The weekend(s) of requested annual leave arrives and dd takes said time off. No one from The Range contacts dd to ask where she is because it's obviously marked down somewhere that she is on annual leave. Pay day arrives.........dd has not been paid for the acknowledged time off, when dd asks manager why hasn't she been paid for the agreed AL the manager tells dd it's because she has incorrectly entered the details on the app. Dd works the same hours on a Saturday and on a Sunday and the same times. This has been the case since she started in November 2024 when the previous manager would accept the request (all performed on the app as she has always done so) and dd would get paid, simple as that. Nothing has changed apart from the new manager arriving and since then dd has not been paid for time she had off (and was approved by manager) for time off in June and July.

If the manager had suspected or realised that dd (and others) where entering the details wrongly on the app then as a manager it should be her responsibility to raise this with her staff and if needed to train them on the app.

Does that make more sense to you?

The manager doesn’t deal with payroll in any shape of form

approves holiday request and that’s the end of the matter from the perspective of the manager

the issue is with payroll if anything

All this will take is a simple email to payroll

who will then contact manager to confirm

and next pay check will include omitted earnings

Given that this has happened multiple times to multiple people and the manager is aware of it, it is very much the manager's job to communicate the correct process to their team to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

It is also the manager's job to know enough about the law to understand that their employees are entitled to be paid for their annual leave regardless, and that if there has been an error it needs to be corrected.

If the manager genuinely thinks that the business is neither able nor legally required to fix this, they shouldn't be in their job.

And if they are aware of the above but are unwilling to do anything about multiple members of their team suffering an unlawful deduction of pay, they also shouldn't be in their job.

HTH.

My daughter is 17 and on £7.55 per hour as a customer assistant, it should not be her job to sort out these issues when she has a line manager, she was fully aware when dd requested the AL dates that dd had made a mistake and should have discussed this before the annual leave took place. This should not be my dd's responsibility.

Managers are there for a reason which is to support their staff.

But how can she put the time down? It has to be submitted before the rota is done so she won’t know the hours.

My DD works for another high street chain (think I want a hippopotamus lamp with a pelican sitting on its head shop 🤣) if she takes a days holiday she gets paid 2 hours - that’s what she is contracted per weekend day.

She counts her blessings very day that she got the job there as compared to what people say on here about some employers she seems to be treated well and fairly.

OP - just seen you update in the wages. There are plenty of shops out there that pay a lot more even for that age - I would look for something else.

But the fuck up is coming from payroll

literally all it will take is an email to payroll

“Sort it out”

It is an email to payroll

and I would hope that a retail employee is capable of dropping payroll and email to clarify that they haven’t been paid in accordance to their approved annual leave request

The manager is the one who has watched it happen several times, said nothing to the team, done nothing to prevent it from happening again and then lied that it can't be fixed.

DD has applied for endless jobs, sadly are area is overpopulated and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find work here, hundreds are applying fur simple weekend jobs. She keeps applying and we can only but hope something better comes up.

I know they’re young adults
but there are employees
and if you know you’re being under paid, you contact payroll

The Range are an grotty employer. Two close friends kids have left after a month of being treated appallingly. They've since been quite happy at another major retailer.

My son has a decent PT retail job. No hassle with annual leave, it's all on the app. Once he's requested it they do all the calculations. I'm amazed at how much better they're treated than I was as a teen in the 90's.

Yes and we will probably have to end up emailing them but that's not the point. The point is the manager should be there to support her staff especially the younger and inexperienced ones. Staff would not have to be contacting other areas if the business if the manager was doing her job correctly.
Due to her inability to help and advise my DD is now building up annual leave which she will probably now have to lose as we are nearing the end of the year.
Good managers ensure simple issues such as these do not occur.

@Returnofjude
If I have a problem with my wages my manager has to deal with it , payroll only deal with managers.

They really are not the best as we are sadly finding out.

@BobButtonsismycatjust remembering my daughters employers just allocates them holiday iif any isn’t used so people don’t lose the pay.

So beyond mumsnetting OP, has payroll been emailed?

But if the DD emails payroll
and they say we will only deal with manager
Then dd emails back - cc’ing in manager asking manager to progress

and we will probably have to end up emailing them but that's not the point. The point is the manager should be there to support her staff

the “point” is your DD is out of pocket and should be paid

if you want that done sooner rather than later, then payroll is first point of contact

@Returnofjude
our payroll will only respond to managers emails , all employees are made aware going straight to payroll is futile .

That is a very poor company

Each employee should have the right to contact HR and payroll unfettered.

To force manager involvement is appalling and absolutely not recommended

What a load of rubbish. In our place it is the managers responsibility to check that they know how much leave is being requested before authorising it. For part time staff it means checking how many hours of leave each request is for unless it is already stated.

As a manager you need to tell new staff what policies and procedures are in place and ask for the information needed if it not provided in the initial request .

@Returnofjude
I work for a very large organisation, ultimately it’s my managers responsibility to provide payroll with the correct information. Even if payroll answered my email it still gets referred to my manager to confirm the mistake.
like most companies we have a chain of command to follow when highlighting mistakes.
Ops DD is only 17 so new to the workplace, she should ask for her holiday pay as per the law but I believe she will only put the shit managers back up by going over her head . Quite rightly shit manager has been given the opportunity to put right her mistake if she doesn’t then op should escalate it .Op has already said the job opportunities are slim and shit manager could easily just dismiss her .
Just to clarify we do have access to HR but it would be frowned upon if we didn’t follow the chain of command and went above everyone straight to HR .