Company wants me to pay back holiday days.

[Mooshamoo]

I started in a job in November 2022. We have an online annual leave system .
At the start of January 2023, 21 days on our online system became available to me for me to take.

I asked my manager could I take two weeks off at the start of the year. I took the last week of January and the first week of February off. This was approved by my manager. I took them. I was then moved to a new manager. Which was the way the company worked. New starters were with one manager. After two months you were changed to another manager

The company was pretty abusive and at the end of February I decided to leave.

I left. I then got an email from my second manager saying I had taken more annual leave days in the time I worked there, then I had accrued. And that I have to pay this annual leave money back. It is 550 euro. I'm in Ireland. This is a lot of money to me as i am now in between jobs.

Can they do this. My first manager who approved the annual leave days, never told me that I did not have enough annual leave days to take. She approved them. She never told me at any stage that if I left the company that I would have to pay these annual leave days back. If I had known that I wouldn't have taken them .

Can they do this to me now?

Absolutely, think that's the way to look at it. Put it down to experience and move on. I hope your next employer is a better fit. (LinkedIn seems to be really good for job hunting these days.)

Thank you very much for that.

And how many people did you hang up on at the end of your shift over all of those years?

We had breaks, and we could go on DND when there was only minutes left of shift

One time they hadn't scheduled anyone in for the last 30 mins of a shift, we left when ours ended. No action was taken against us.

It wasn't perfect, but it also wasn't illegal

And time after 15 over were paid overtime (you would have to agree with floor manager)

I don't think it's 'young = dumb', I think young people have less experience so sometimes make mistakes that to other people are obvious. Just as you will never make the holiday assumption mistake again. Besides, you've aid you're not young.

I believe the correct response to the actions you describe are “Stunning and Brave”. You followed your call centers policies. You never hung up on a caller at the end of your shift. Yet maintain it’s good advice for others to follow.

@Mooshamoo and anyone else who may be reading this…please don’t follow advice from keyboard warriors.

People are being unnecessarily unkind now.

OP - you made a mistake. It’s ok. It’s fixable (albeit it’s going to cost you). Breathe.

I’m sorry to hear your mother was unwell and hope she is on the mend (apologies if I have missed otherwise).

You will get a new job, a much better job (can’t be worse!) and this will soon be nothing more than a memory of a bad decision.

Chin up and good luck x

Good luck with future employers OP. Check indeed for reviews before signing any new contracts.

I worked in a call centre years ago and we couldn’t just up and leave if we were on a call, or if it was the last shift until all calls in the queue were cleared. There was no overtime and you couldn’t just get up and leave.

People saying to just leave and demand overtime have no idea how these things are. Public sector workers and some lucky private sector workers do not have a clue what it is like for many workers, who cannot just join a union and demand this and that. Sadly there are many mistreated and underpaid workers who are voiceless and powerless and trampled all over and ignored. They are not public sector workers, who are lucky and don’t realise it. I would fully support call centre staff going on strike, they are treated appallingly.

Why can’t you join a union? You are entitled to do so in the U.K. Your workplace may not be traditionally unionised, but membership can begin to start getting traction and a voice if most people join.

You need to grow up and take some responsibility.

You chose not to take breaks.

You chose to work unpaid overtime.

You chose to take your AL.

You chose not to work your notice.

Own your mistakes. And don’t re-enter the workforce until you understand how to do that.

So how come none of my colleagues can take breaks either?
I would never choose not to take a break. If I could have taken it I would.

They can. They are choosing not to just like you did.

Your issues about not being able to take a break and not being paid to finish calls after 5.30 are entirely separate to your issues of needing to pay back holiday pay.

Providing you reported your issues re the break and unpaid work as per the grievance procedure in your contract (normally to raise the issue firstly with your manager and if not resolved to then raise it with HR who should either resolve the issue or put it in writing why your requests are not reasonable) then you may have a case for constructive dismissal.

There are not choosing. they are threatened by managers with dismissal if they don't get the work done. To do the required work , it is necessary to work through breaks, as that is the only time that we get off calls.

@Mooshamoo I 100% believe you about your working conditions and how management threatens workers to take all calls (and thus no break).

Hope you are able to find a better job soon!

They are choosing.

When are you going to take some responsibility instead of blaming them for everything?

If you're threatened with being fired if you don't get the work done, and so you have to work through your breaks, I don't see that as a choice.

I see it as a choice under threat.

If I had a choice , I would choose to take my break.

Agree with this. It's one of the reasons I disagree with SOME of the reasons that public sector workers strike.

Do you think it might be that you were all pretty new and therefore slower than more veteran coworkers, and that with experience your processing times would have increased? Did you ask your manager if you could shadow some veterans to look for best practices that you could apply?

Jeez what's with the pile up on the op on this thread. She made a mistake, has been trying to figure out how to rectify said mistake and people are continuing to be horrendous for the op being a bit nieve.

I hope you get sorted op but I wouldn't be offering any large sums to what sounds like a vile employer. Just offer 10 or 20 quid a month. Because they have paid your last paycheque it will be harder for them to enforce this. See what they have to say first before offering anything to them.

You may not be young, but you seem very naive and immature. Maybe that's why people are assuming you are young

You've taken enough comments now about why you should have known and accepted the faults, no point going over that. So here is some good news instead.

1. The money is in your bank account, the power of when to pay it back rests with you. Query 50 times if necessary about what you owe and why until you are happy. Then say you can only afford €5 per month repayment, until you can afford it and want to get rid of the debt. You can drag out a few months of debate before paying back anything significant, so no immediate concern. If they try telling you it's due now "well, but I just don't have it". It's only at the point where they take you to court that the money really needs paying to prevent issues for you.
2. There are a ton of similarly low-paid jobs out there. Leaving may challenge your reference, but you're at one of those rarer times of labour shortage where it doesn't matter. Try admin, restaurant supervisor or something else you fancy, make this the best bad decision you ever made.

Good luck!

👏 👏 👏

I know - it's a bit cheap getting off on someone else's misfortune - but the posts trying to make the OP feel worse keep coming. Are these people shits in real life too - or are they just horrible when hiding behind a screen?