Agency has not paid holiday pay

[Pemba]

I am asking on behalf of DD. She has worked for a few months via an agency - she submits timesheets and is paid weekly by the agency. Recently she took a long planned 2 week holiday, which both the agency and the employer/placement knew about in advance. She enquired beforehand about holiday pay and was told she had accrued six days holiday pay, so 4 days of the 2 weeks would be unpaid, which she was fine with. She was advised to submit in advance timesheets for each week she would be away, claiming 3 days holiday pay for each week. She did this and got her supervisor to countersign as normal. But when she got back from holiday and checked her bank account she found she hadn't been paid at all over the holiday!

In a complication she has just unexpectedly come up on the NHS waiting list for a minor operation she needed, for which she will need to take approximately a week off work. Her contact at the employment agency 'helpfully' suggested she could claim the missing holiday pay to cover her sick leave. Personally I suspect they are doing this to avoid giving her Statutory Sick Pay - or is it just incompetence?

Can she insist they make her a separate payment for the 6 days holiday pay she should have had? Also, does anyone know what happens about her NI contributions record? - as she had 2 weeks unpaid she will have a gap in her record - how much does this matter?

I want to help her with this, but it is all so complicated and the person at the agency doesn't appear to understand much about it either. (You'd imagine it would be part of their job to know this stuff).

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows!

I'm not sure how much help any of us can be, as really the only people who will know are the people who she has to deal with at the agency.

It will all depend on the exact nature of her contract. I've never heard of casual agency staff submitting timesheets for annual leave - the agencies I've worked with calculate your holiday entitlement down to the minute each week (eg if you worked for 10 hours you are entitled to 1 hour and 12 minutes of holiday pay) and you get your holiday pay as a lump sum once every 3 months - and when you take the time off it's up to you to not accept the shifts and not get paid.

The SSP situation will depend on whether or not she has accrued 3 months' continuous employment by the time it happens. If she takes a week off she will only be entitled to 2 day's SSP as the first 3 days aren't covered - it may not be worth the hassle but should be kept entirely separate from the holiday issue.