Holiday entitlement

[cookiecrunch94]

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice/guidance please. My sister works part time (16 hours a week) at a nursing home and has just told me that last year she only had 16 hours annual leave. She has queried this with her manager who has advised her that this is correct as per her contract, and there is no way of backdating the entitlement. Sister has taken no annual leave so far this year. Sister says another colleague queried this and was paid approx £1k backdated holiday pay (I'm not sure if this is accurate or not).
My sister is going to check her contract but has worked for this employer for a number of years and does not think she has access to it.
What would people advise the next steps to take? My thoughts were contacting citizens advice but my sister has asked me to help her draft a letter to her manager in the first instance. Any help/guidance is much appreciated

there is only one thing that needs to be done now

contract

she will have her own copy of the contract. has she lost it?

Minimum holiday is a statutory matter, not contractual. Companies can choose to offer more than stat via the terms and conditions, but not less. She is entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday and if she regularly works overtime that will increase her allowance or rate she’s paid for holiday.

I don’t think I’m qualified to advise but you could call ACAS
There is lots on their site about employment rights including holiday entitlement and their helpline number is 0300 123 1100
https://www.acas.org.uk/

I think she has lost it but she's checking today, thanks for your response

how long has your sister actually been employed by the company?

Thank you I didn't know this. I'm going to look on the .gov website and see what her entitlement actually is. She does do overtime occasionally if they're short staffed

5 years, she has taken holidays in previous years but I've got no idea if she was given a legal entitlement

She gets a legal entitlement regardless of whether it's documented to her or not. 5.6 weeks means weeks at the hours that she works. It's very usual for workplaces to convert all annual leave into hours, including the proportion of bank holidays that part timers are also entitled to. Lots of advice online about how to calculate
It and if they have routinely denied it to her she has a case for a payment to compensate for the detriment.

Thanks all. Her manager is saying that for last year, as she didn't request any days this had now been lost and she can't be compensated. My sister is arguing that she wasn't told what her entitlement was (frustrating as I'm not sure why she wasn't hot on this realising she hadn't taken any holidays at the time!) Are last years holidays now lost?

Minimum holiday is 5.6 weeks, so 28 days for a full time employee. If she is contracted to 16 hours a week her 5.6 weeks is pro-rated.
So i put 16 hours at 3 days week into the government holiday calculator, and that gives 89.6 hours.
https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

She could use this, as a base point.

Holiday allowances for overtime, become more complicated.

I think you need to clarify the situation here. From your update it doesn't seem like the employer is witholding AL, it seems like she didn't request all of her AL last year and now wants them to be paid off, am I right?
If yes then she can't do that, it was her responsibility to ask for leave.

If she has been working for that employer for a few years, she should know what their holiday policy is and how AL is tracked.
The employer wouldn't remind her each what her entitlement is, she could have asked her manager or asked for the policy.

Bearbookagainandagain - thank you I assumed this too as I assumed the onus is on the employee, where I work with annual leave if you don't use it you loose it. I'm frustrated she hasn't asked for guidance with this in the past as she's now lost these days.

Good practice from employers is to send reminders throughout the year to avoid that kind of situation, it's a shame really.

I doubt she will get any luck getting her past leaves paid off, but she could ask whether she is able to carry over some days to next year. Most company would allow some leave to be carried over (2-5 days usually)

A lot of employers have a "use it or lose it" policy, so the employer would be right in saying that she didn't book it and therefore it was lost.

She would be entitled to 5.6 weeks x 16 hours, so a minimum of 89.6 hours as mentioned above and as also mentioned, if she has worked more hours then she might be entitled to slightly more holiday.

I would encourage her to book some time off to ensure that she uses it.