Wwyd - unfair annual leave ?

[Amibeingsilly99]

My annual leave each year is 25 days, (plus 1 day for birthday which is not counted in holiday entitlement) plus 2 days loyalty for time served at company, plus the 8 bank hols plus 1 day off at Christmas. Totalling 36 days. My company has sent an email to me saying that my entitlement this year is 26 days to choose from, having taken the 8 days bank holiday plus 2 days for Christmas.

My colleague who is new to the company and therefore has not accrued the 2 loyalty days has received an email advising she has 27 days left to use - I don't understand how she has an extra day than me, when I should have 2 extra days due to the loyalty days?

I'm just wondering what people would do in this scenario - butt out and stay in my lane or raise it? I know my annual leave is right as I have gone through it with HR and tallied up my additional days, so I suspect hers has been copied over from somewhere and is wrong. So by raising it I would most likely be notifying them of an error and therefore taking days away from her.

She may have a different contract with a different allowance to you.

It makes no difference to your allowance what she has been given, so I wouldn't raise it. If it is an error, they will figure it out, if it isn't, she may have a different contractual allowance.

How do you know what she has?

I’ve got two staff who both work the exact same hours part time yet one has 22 days and the other 24. They literally work the same amount of days so I don’t understand it. When I emailed payroll they told me it was correct so there’s nothing I could do about it. When I checked on the government website the colleague that has 22 days was correct so I suspect someone has made a mistake somewhere. It’s unfair but once they realise their mistake they’ll probably rectify it. You’d think that companies would have a foolproof way of working out annual leave but clearly not and it’s unfair and causes unnecessary resentment.

In your shoes I’m not sure what I’d do, if yours is correct and they are not giving you less I’d probably say nothing. The only reason I checked my staff was because the one with 24 days didn’t want to owe any money if it was wrong, maybe your colleague will feel the same way and question hers?

@Barrenfieldoffucks that's a good point , it would make no difference to my allowance.
Hr has been handed over to a new lady and formalised so emails have been sent at the start of the year with our hol allowance. It has come up in passing conversation.

Don't think its a higher contract as typically the company have reduced annual leave from when I started (over 10 years ago) from 25 to 20 days.

Maybe she negotiated to keep the same number of days as in her previous job and they didn’t want her to walk away so they agreed - it’s very common.

I don't see how this affects you

Her allowance is nothing to do with you. If your letter is correct then there's nothing to raise.

It’s really not your business, but if your colleague was sick during a booked period of A/L, she would then have got that day’s holiday back to take another time; or she might have not used all her allowance last year and therefore been able to carry the balance into the new leave year. Or both.

As long as your own allowance is correct, stay in your lane - this one isn’t for you to think about.

Isn't it most likely she has some to carry over?

@Beakthrough yes, I didn't think of this. She joined in about May 2025 and probably did not use all of her allocated annual leave so most likely did carry 2/3 days over!

Thanks all for reality check! :)

If yours is correct then leave it. What benefit is there to you in raising it? I can see only a negative outcome for you (upset colleague, reputation for being a nosy nelly/tell tale/not a team player etc).

@NuffSaidSam thank you - thats also something i didnt think of - what benefit is there to me raising it.

this is is why i love mumsnet is for the difference in views and I was on the fence and now i wont do anything further

I negotiated extra annual leave when I joined my current company. I have more than the normal allowance that everyone else gets and at the start of each year, have to email HR to ask them to correct my entitlement on the system.

It’s very possible she has done the same.