To ask for holiday pay advice

[Seasword]

I started a new job on the 17/06/19. Unfortunately it didn’t work out and I left on 01/11/19.
I didn’t take any leave during this period.
I was paid my October salary, so I was owed 1 day pay and any accrued leave.
My contract states:
“You are entitled to 20 days paid holiday annually in addition to the 8 UK public holidays”
Additionally it stated that if my employment ends midway during the holiday year, then it will be assessed on a pro rata basis.
Now I thought that the law states I am entitled to 28 days holiday which can include the bank holidays.
They have calculated my entitlement as 8 days.
I calculate it as 10.769 days, meaning that they owe me a further £223.65.
Are they right to ignore the extra 8 days? Even if it is stated on the contract?
If I am correct, has anyone got the specific employment law reference for me to quote to them?
They were horrible to work for, treated us like school children, no talking, no phones, even when my colleague’s wife was ill at home with two small children. They refused to pay my mileage when I had to visit clients, supplied tea and coffee for everyone except me as I can’t have caffeine. I had to supply my own fruit tea, which was about 50p from Lidl. It wasn’t the cost just their meanness in every aspect. I could go on but I won’t bore you all. It was a very unhappy place to be.

Did you work the bank holidays in August?

I think it depends on how bank holidays are dealt with - my employer closes for them so they never appear in holiday allowance and don't get pro rata'd for starting or leaving

Previous employer was open for most so they were an add on.

Assuming you don't work bank holidays you would have had one at the end of August, your entitlement would have been 10.6 days, holidays must be rounded up so it would be 11 minus the one bank holiday they owe you 2 days AL.

When does the holiday year run? How is holiday for the year evaluated if you start part way through the year (where I work if you start on a day other than the first of the month you "lose" that month's holiday allowance)?

Bank holidays may be as they fall? So the only one you'd be entitled to is the August one (assuming you're in England or wales) which should be added to what they owe you unless you didn't work it.

Admittedly I think, double checking, your allwance should be calculator including bank. So unless you've taken some then your calc seems correct. It's how I would do it for my employees too.

Employers can dictate when you take your holidays (which is what would happen if they close on bank hols) but that should, i think, only have an impact on how you use up the allowance not on the accrual for the purposes of holiday pay owed

No I didn’t work the August bank holiday. They have worked it out as me finishing on the 8/11/19 which was my one week notice, and treated it as holidays. So my period of employment was 145 days and 145/365 = 7.945205.
The holiday year ends 31/12

Just had this issue as started a new job part way through the year. My workplace calculate Bank Holiday entitlement based on which Bank Holidays fell in the time you worked there rather than pro rata for the year. So for the period you worked you would be entitled to 1 bank holiday, and if you had it off you wouldn't be entitled to any pay for it.

At our place, the holidays are accrued for a full month, so if you worked 4 full months (July to October) it would be 20/12 x 4 = 6.67 rounded up to 7 days holidays.

You have already been paid for the August Bank Holidays already in your normal pay.

I think they have calculated correctly. You don't have a right to a pro-rata share of the bank holidays that fall outside the time of your employment. You worked from mid-June to 8th October counting your week's notice as paid annual leave.

That was 105 days (mon-fri) where there are 260 mon-fri days in a year, so your pro-rata share of the 20 days of paid annual leave which is 8.07 days. You got the bank holiday day in August off.

The Ts&Cs of "20 days of paid annual leave plus statutory bank holidays" is not the same as "28 days of paid annual leave with an obligation to use a day's leave whenever a statutory bank holiday falls on a working day" - even though those might work out the same for someone working for a whole year, your calculation of 10 days owed is trying to force the policy to be the latter, and it is not.

If you had worked for exactly the same period of time between December and May, you would have had 6 Bank Holiday days off, and still accrued the same 8 days of paid annual leave. Maybe that's not fair but that's due to the arcane way that statutory holidays are unevenly distributed through the year.

But HMRC state 28 days which may include bank holidays?
Has anyone got an employment law reference?
Thanks for everyone’s comments by the way.

Sorry I'm a bit confused, are you asking if you were entitled to 28 days PLUS bank holidays?

It sounds like you get paid for bank holidays as they occur, if you didn't work the August bank holiday. So you did take one holiday, and it would have been paid in August.

Presumably, they deal with all their bank holidays that way - they are taken as they occur. If that's the case, the holidays showing on your record to take will be the remaining 20, and your accrued holiday entitlement will be based on that.

From the HMRC website

*An employer can use an accrual system to work out a worker’s leave during the first year of the job. Under this system, a worker gets one-twelfth of their leave in each month.

Example
Someone works a 5-day week and is entitled to 28 days’ annual leave a year. After their third month in the job, they’d be entitled to 7 days’ leave (a quarter of their total leave, or 28 ÷ 12 × 3).*

So you worked 4 months. One-twelfth of 28 days x 4 months is 9 days, minus the day bank holiday you already took in August which leaves 8 days.

So you left on 1st but were employed until 8th? Did you give notice or not?

They should have rounded up however as I think the figure comes to 8.33

Yes I gave 1 week notice.
Holiday pay is accrued from start date not the first completed month.
Thanks again for your comments

HMRC state 28 days which may include bank holidays?

So, 20 days plus you get the 8 bank holidays off as and when they fall, surely. If you aren't employed over a bank holiday you don't get paid for it.

145/365 x 20 days = 8 days.