New company taking over

[Mads96]

Hi,

my sister works for a dental practice as a dental nurse and her holiday allowance resets January. We have booked a holiday to Disney in January and she would have enough holiday with her entitlement resetting before. However, new owners are taking over the practice and have said holiday will now reset in April so she won’t have enough allowance and can’t have the time off. She asked for the time off work before new owners were on the seen, she was told there were new owners and a week later they took over. Does she have any rights?

Potentially your sister may be covered by TUPE and so I would advise her to contact ACAS as this is a complex area. www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers

Secondly if they move the annual leave year from 1 Jan to 1 April your sister is legally entitled to pro rated leave from 1 Jan 2023 to 31 March 2023. She would then get a full leave allowance from 1 April.

Assuming she gets 5.6 weeks and works 5 days a week her entitlement would be 28 days /365 x 90 = 6:9 working days rounded up to 7 working days. Assuming they close on 3 Jan for the BH she loses 1 day so 6 days left.

I would check to see if her contract/ annual leave policy allows carrying over leave and/or anticipating leave.

if you are going to Disney for 2 weeks she needs 10/11 working days. So carrying over 2/3 days and anticipating 2/3 days is not unreasonable.

If they are being unreasonable definitely talk to ACAS.

After talking to ACAS your sister may find it useful to email her current employer and ask an innocent question, such as, as x is taking over the business is this covered by TUPE?