employer wrongly offered payment in lieu for a statutory holiday

[Marabou]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here would be able to advise on a problem I am having with my employer.

My employer has done bit of a booboo by requesting our team to work on a bank holiday for a payment in lieu. As this meant sacrificing one statutory annual leave day, I understand it was not legal for them to do this under the working time regulations of 2009.

Having now discovered their mistake, the employer is offering us the day off in lieu instead and they are asking us to return the money already paid for the work.

While this of course sounds rather logical, I was wondering whether it is quite reasonable for them to ask us to pay back money, which is now of course already spent. Ultimately this was a mistake from the employer?s part, so should we really have to be penalised for it?

How much holiday do you get? If you get anything more than 28 days all in (including bank holidays, and pro rata for part timers), it was actually perfectly legal.

Thanks for your reply.

Sorry I forgot to mention that actually; I get more holidays than the statutory minimum myself, so I was aware of the fact that for me that was fine. But there were several others, who only get the 28 days PA bank holidays inclusive, so in their case the employer made a mistake..

You do know there's an extra bank holiday this year for the royal wedding? Can they not just give the staff that extra day and leave everything else? And if staff have pulled together to work on a bank hol when normally they'd be off then giving them a bit extra money then taking it away will do nothing for morale and probably cost more to recover so seems a bit silly to me based on what you said.

Gosh sorry for epic final sentence. Not sure what happened there!

Yes - are they giving the royal wedding as a bank holiday? If so, they'll be effectively replacing the missed bank holiday and can leave things as they are.

Thank you all again for your responses!

I had a look today, when I got back to the office and nope, only the statutory minimum of 28 days is offered this year, so no extra day for the royal wedding. I suppose they're in the wrong then..

Hey again all,

Just thought to ask you again, as now my employer has realised that effectively they cannot offer payment in lieu for the people, who only have the statutory minimum of holidays this year(i.e. 28 days) and now they are asking these people to either opt for the day off later on, or payment in lieu in which case you would have to sign a disclaimer. But surely they cannot do this either?! It's not a question of choice really is it...?

They can ask people to take a different day off but a day of statutory leave cannot be replaced by a payment in lieu. Having said that, if the staff concerned agree to this they aren't going to be taking your employer to tribunal over loss of their rights, so they only way your employer would get in trouble would be if the HSE found out about it.

Thanks for your reply! That's what I thought as well that it would be difficult to say you did not know you had a right to a minimum of holidays, if you agreed to give up a day or two.. But then again, the employer would surely have to clearly explain what the disclaimer is for etc. ..