Office Holiday Pay.

[KungFuPandaWorksOut20]

Posting for a friend.

She works in a small office, 5 staff members in total.

She got notified yesterday the office is closing from 20th December til 4th Janaury as the owners (3 of the office members) have family over.

They have informed her she will not be paid for this whilst the office is closed. At the start of the November they went on a 2 week holiday, and closed the office. When she expressed she doesnt have 2 weeks holiday leave to cover the closure, they told her she doesn't have to cover anything as it's there holiday not hers, and not to worry.

Payday rolls around and she got nothing. When she queried it, they said What you was expecting to get paid for doing nothing?

Her role can be completely done from home, which her employers refused throughout the pandemic. Although doesn't stop them ringing her after hours to do favours.

Is this correct, that they can just close the office whenever they want and she has to deal with financial fall out?

Her contract mentions nothing about this scenario.

She could do with someone double checking the wording of her contract but it sounds like she will have a good case for illegally witholding pay.

They are quit at liberty to ignore her grievance but that will then pave the way for her to go to an employment tribunal which could be very costly for them.

ACAS should now be her first port of call or a decent employment laywer.

Info on temporary lay offs (unpaid leave)

www.gov.uk/staff-redundant/layoffs-and-shorttime-working

"You can lay off an employee (ask them to stay at home or take unpaid leave) when you temporarily cannot give them paid work - as long as the employment contract allows this.

Short-time working is when an employee works reduced hours or is paid less than half a week’s pay.

Laying off staff or short-time working can help avoid redundancies - but you have to agree this with staff first.

This could be in:

their employment contract
a national agreement for the industry
a collective agreement between you and a recognised trade union
National and collective agreements can only be enforced if they’re in the employee’s employment contract.

You may also be able to lay off an employee or put them on short-time working:

where you have clear evidence showing it’s been widely accepted in your organisation over a long period of time
if you agree with the employee to change their employment contract to allow them to be laid off or put on short-time working (this will not automatically give you the power to do this without their consent in the future)
Statutory guarantee payments
Employees are entitled to these if you do not provide them with a full day’s work during the time they’d normally be required to work.

The maximum payment is £30 a day for 5 days (£150) in any 3 months. If employees usually earn less than £30 a day, they’ll get their usual daily rate. For part-time workers, the rate is worked out proportionally."

@Comefromaway

Flowery's advice is correct (it always is). If her contract states 8.30am - 1.30pm then she MUST be paid for those hours. Some contracts allow for short time working but there is a procedure which must be followed.

Also she does need to check the holiday situation as she is entitled to 28 days (including bank holidays) Her day's holiday pay must be the same as she gets for working her normal working day of 8.30am - 1.30pm.

We close for 10 days at Christmas and employees have to use holiday. But everyone knows this from the start of the year and know they have to either save their holiday or take unpaid leave.

Minor correction - as she works 4 days a week, she is entitled to 22.4 days holiday, not 28.

I missed it was 4 days not 5

Is there anything she can do in regards to the holidays? As in her contract it stays 12 days and she has signed it.

@KungFuPandaWorksOut20

Is there anything she can do in regards to the holidays? As in her contract it stays 12 days and she has signed it.

A contract cannot override the law

@KungFuPandaWorksOut20

Is there anything she can do in regards to the holidays? As in her contract it stays 12 days and she has signed it.

As GCITC says, it doesn't matter what it says in her contract. She is, by law, entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid holiday a year, which works out at 22.4 days including bank holidays. Her contract could give her more holiday than that. It cannot give her less. Any term in her contract that purports to give her less than her legal entitlement is invalid.

As I and others have pointed out, their statement that she legally doesn't have to be paid if she isn't working is wrong. If she was on a zero hours contract they would be right. However, as she is on fixed hours, they must pay her if she is available to work.

They don't have a clue. Cowboys.

Perfect, thank you all so much for the advice.

I will tell her to add the holiday entitlement into the grievance aswell. She's got the template from the ACAS website ready to complete.

@LIZS

Employers can dictate leave. Does she use her statutory paid leave at other times of the year? If this is on top it can be unpaid, if deducted from her leave allowance paid.

They can tell you when to take your annual leave. Not sure they can enforce unpaid leave!

@KungFuPandaWorksOut20

Is there anything she can do in regards to the holidays? As in her contract it stays 12 days and she has signed it.

Yes she can. Contracts can’t override the law.

She’s entitled to the equivalent of 28 paid days holiday as a minimum, so 22.5.

28/5 x 4 will give you her allowance.

Sorry, should be 22.4!

Potential spanner in the works.

She has been employed by the family for 2 years, but back in January the original company she joined ended, and it became a different company name. Her position and duties remained the exact same.

Does this still count as 2 years?

Was she tuped over to new company?

Yes that will be continuous service, if it’s all owned by the same people.

Yes it does. And, as I said up thread, if she is dismissed for complaining about an unlawful deduction from wages and/or insufficient holidays, that is automatically unfair and means she does not need 2 years service to win a case for unfair dismissal.

They sound like terrible employers - I know she might think it’s hard to find work elsewhere 20 hours per week but I would recommend she has a look at public sector roles. You are a good friend OP

Im helping her and finding information for her because shes absolutely petrified she's going to lose her job, when she's got kids and a house to maintain.

She's typed up the grievance letter ready for the morning. She's hoping she's put her points across effectively.

I will keep you all updated, thanks for all your advice it's been amazing.