No holiday pay or holiday pay with reduced hourly rate??

[rubbishfamily333]

I recently started a new job, it's working in a office of a small company, when I was offered the job my boss asked what my salary expectations were, I said for an admin position I would expect around £10 per hour. My boss said that will be inclusive of holiday pay ie if I take holiday it will be unpaid.

I told him that in other positions I would normally get £10 per hour and holiday pay as extra. He said we will discuss it again after me working there for 4 weeks.

During my first four weeks he also asked me to increase my days so I went from 3 days per week to 4.

I recently brought up the holiday allowance subject and he said if he does give me holiday allowance he will probably have to reduce my hourly rate slightly but will check with the account that come in a few times per week.

So my question is what would you do? Let him reduce my hourly rate and have holiday pay? Or keep the current hourly rate and take holiday time unpaid?

Also I am a single parent so I don't have a partner to support me financially.

I think by law he is kidding himself if he thinks he can get away with no holiday pay!

hopefully someone with more knowledge will be along shortly

Pretty sure it's not legal to give paid holiday. Presumably you signed a contract? What does it say there?

Helpful website here. He should have worked out hourly rates to ensure he can afford the paid holiday you're legally entitled to before you started. Not your problem if he didn't think this through in advance.

"Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). An employer can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave"

Thank you all for the replies, I didn't sign a contact.

I had been unemployed for a little while so I was desperate for a job.

Paid holiday is not optional. He needs to give it to you at whatever hourly rate you are on.

There is a risk he may terminate your employment and re-offer on a lower rate once he realises this.

Yes you are entitled to holiday pay as stated above 5.6 weeks per annum. It is a legal requirement so he cannot only pay you when you are at work, your pay must be inclusive of your holiday entitlement.

So if you work 4 days per week that is 22.4 days paid, this can include the bank holidays. So if you work Monday to Thursday for instance you would first take off all the bank holidays that fall on those days, then any remainder would be what you could take off as paid leave.

Your pay rate is £10 per hour (assuming 7 hour days) that is £280 per week or £14560 per year. If you don't get paid for Bank Holidays or your leave then you will lose £1568 a year, a equivalent of only £8.93 per hour, would you be happy with this?

You do need a contract. Otherwise how do you know you have a job?

Thank you all for the replies, I am just about to look on the link Peterparker added.

Feetup - I actually work 5 hours per day 4 days per week. Wow that is a massive difference, and no I don't feel like I can loose £1568 per year, or even £500 per year.

Well I feel quite stuck now :(

So you work 20 hours a week and are paid £200 or £10400 per annum.

If your boss does not want to include are not your statutory leave that will be a deduction of £1120 with a pay rate of just under £8.93 per hour.

He can't only pay you for the hours you do it is illegal.

You may not gave a contract but did you get a written offer letter.

I didn't have an offer letter, but I did ask him to email me the details for confirmation. In the email he offered £10 per hour (inclusive of holiday pay).

I emailed back to confirm does that mean I will receive holiday pay and he said no, but we will review this in 4weeks.

All you can do is say you've looked into it and found that you are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday annually, and it must be actually taken, as in you must have paid time off, it's not something he can just pay on top.

If he says fine but in that case he is going to reduce your hourly rate you have a decision to make. You may have a contract (although not a written one) for £10 ph but he can easily terminate that with a weeks notice and re employ you on the new hourly rate.

I would suggest you also ask for a contract. You are entitled to at least a written statement of particulars, which is a fancy way of saying you are entitled to a contract setting out at least the very basic terms and conditions of your employment, hours, pay, holiday, location etc

Ask him to set out in writing your contractual arrangements.

If he speaks to someone to ask them what he should do about all of this he may come back and say the contract is for £8.90 per hour plus paid holidays. This then equates back to his shorthand of £10-inclusive.

So you will need to ask yourself if you would still be happy to do the job for £8.92 per hour.

If you are a casual (ie zero hour) employee then he is not obliged to pay you for times you dont want / cant work. If you have a contract of a set number of hours each week, then he must pay this every week.includong those where ypu are on holiday.

From.what you have said, it sounds as though you are a casual / zero hours employee.

The OP doesn't say anything which indicates to me that she is a casual worker rather than an employee.

She hasnt seen or signed a contract and has been quoted an hourly rate that includes the 'holiday' suppliment. That says casual.to me.

Employers skirt round this by hiring agency workers and/or zero-hours.

No, that says the employer isn't complying with his obligations. It doesn't indicate that those obligations don't exist in the first place.

It may be that he would like her to be a casual worker. That doesn't mean she is one.

That was to Mortified

I am not a casual worker as he expects me to be at work 4 days per week for 5.5 hours with an unpaid 1/2 hour lunch break.

I have spoke to him again and still havnt got an answer. I don't think I would be happy to reduce my hourly rate to £8.90.

When you say you haven't got an answer, what did he actually say?

Well I spoke with him last week. He said he would speak to the book keeper and come back to me.

I mentioned it again today and he said something along the lines of we can reduce your pay to £8 per hour. I said that calculation doesn't sound correct to me, he said I think it's around £8.75 per hour.

I really feel quite stuck as I can't leve without having another job first. So I really don't know if I should keep it how it is or allow him to reduce my hourly rate and have holiday pay