Contract says "entitled" to holiday- none allowed in practice?

[Whynewnham]

My DD (18) has been working for a well known activity/ childcare holiday company for the Summer season- she has a fixed term employment contract of 11 weeks. The contract makes it clear that they will be expected to work in excess of 48 hours a week and gives no specific hours or days (she has generally worked "weeks" of 6-11 days straight before getting one day off before the next "week")

The contract does however state that she is "entitled" to 28 days pro rata which equates to 5.75 days for the period she has worked. The contract ends on 6 September. She has taken 0 days holiday so far.

She would like to take the final 5 days off before she flies home as holiday. Her manager had apparently verbally indicated a month ago that these dates should be fine as it is after the end of the peak season. He has now changed his mind and said, apparently, that granting of any holiday is at his discretion and he will have to see.

My question is, legally, can the manager go against the holiday entitlement written into the contract and refuse her any holiday at all during the entire period she has worked? Our family have paid to fly out to see her before she heads off to uni but she is now very upset that it appears she will have to work all but 1 day we are there. Her wage is £60 per week, with free room and board and she is employed under UK law although working in a resort in another EU country.

Any advice appreciated.

My advice would be for her not to go to work and forgo the £60 she would have been paid for the week.

I think if they don't allow her to take the holiday (I think that they can do this but not 100%) then they would need to pay her for the holiday she was owed but not permitted to take.

I've worked for a popular holiday club before and they paid holiday pay as a lump sum at the end of the contract since the work was seasonal. No idea if they are allowed to do that or not, but that's what happened

I used to employ people term time like that at after school activities. Their contract ran for 12 weeks from September & holiday in that time wasn't allowed. They were paid what they had accrued when they finished mid December (effectively the Christmas holiday when the activity was closed)

Thanks all. thatstoast she is thinking about that but it would mean she had no bed for the last week- the contract says accommodation would be withdrawn. She would also lose the £200 bonus they stipulate is paid on successful completion of the season.

Alexander did you specify up front that no holiday would be allowed? DD was not told this, nor was it mentioned in her contract.

The fact she only found out today, 3 days before her holiday was due to start, also seems very off.

I thought she could stay with you as you're out there but I guess if you're already booked up then that would be additional cost.

I guess it's up to her whether the money is worth it as I doubt there's anything she can do to get them to agree to the holiday at this point.

When I was at Uni I had an employer who wouldn't let me book a holiday for a presentation I had to give. This was my 3rd year and the presentation constituted a huge proportion of my grade. They wouldn't budge so I had to quit which they were really passive aggressive about. As if I should put my degree in jeopardy so I could do a thursday morning shift in a lingerie shop

Yes, it stated that no holiday was allowed to be taken in termtime but to be honest most people didn't read it, they just took that as given (many had worked in schools or other educational settings previously & so it was standard)

Employers can restrict when employees take their holidays - although I do think she should have been told at least a week in advance that it may not be possible to take these days off.

As your DD is working a short-term contract in peak holiday time, tbh I wouldn't expect her to take time off - she would, as a PP said I suspect, get paid a lump sum at the end instead of the days off.

So yes, I think they can refuse the holiday but I think they should give at least the same notice as the holiday (so a week's notice of refusal for a week's holiday) .

I hope she gets some of the time off and you can meet up.

TBH most seasonal jobs don't allow holiday - with accrued holiday pay added to the final weeks salary. I'm surprised you and she thought otherwise.

I used to work in holiday care when I was doing my teaching degree. No holiday was allowed to be taken and any holiday accrued was paid out at the end of the contract.

It would be completely against the point of hiring someone to cover school holidays and then let them go on holidays.