Being paid Annual Leave when not requested? Can we pay it back?

[JumpinJacques]

I hope I can get some answers to this as I can only find information about when your employer refuses to pay you holiday, or paying it back when leaving, not when they've paid you when you didn't ask for it.

DH started a job on 23/05/22. He requested 2 weeks off UNPAID not long after he started, as he was not entitled to Statutory Paternity Pay. His employer paid him A/L.

He then took 1 week off, again requested as UNPAID, for a course. Again, employer has paid him A/L.

He phoned in sick for 1 day and they have again paid him A/L.
Another day, he called to say there was serious defect with his works van that made it unsafe to drive and he wasn't prepared to drive it as it could mean that he would be liable for any fines/points if he were to get stopped by Police. They couldn't get someone to bring him another van that same day, so he did not work. Again, they have paid him A/L for this.

I understand they have tried to do him a favour by paying him for the time off, probably assuming that he wouldn't want to be unpaid. But we had planned our finances in advance, and were prepared for him to take it unpaid, rather than be in a massive negative within the first couple of months of employment and have to take unpaid leave at a later date that we hadn't planned for, or if he were to leave, having to pay it back. We obviously have time in the future where DH will need to use his annual leave to cover school holidays, and our actual holiday.

Can he request that this is paid back now so his holiday balance is back at zero? I know that if he were to leave then they would take what he owes out of his final pay, but I was wondering if it's possible to do it now whilst we can afford to take the hit?

We are planning on moving at the end of the year, but we currently have the money to pay it, and cannot guarantee we will be able to afford to pay it back or take unpaid leave in the future.

Any ideas?

If he’s already took all his paid AL then in October/Xmas when he wants leave it would just be unpaid?

if they allow it off I presume.

Has he booked the dates of your holidays off? I find it surprising that you expected he could just opt for unpaid leave so that he could keep all his annual leave for when he wanted it - that isn't how it's ever worked anywhere I've ever worked.

Yes he booked the dates off when he first started in January. Then it was a few months later when I got my rough date for my C section he booked the 2 weeks off, then around the same time, the week for the course. They said it was all fine.

Maybe it's just because of my experience but with my own employer, but I could choose what leave I wanted to take, A/L, TOIL, parental leave, special leave, unpaid leave etc.

It sounds like you have a very flexible employer. I don't think it's the norm to request unpaid leave to top up your AL constantly (of course, some types of unpaid leave like parental leave are a legal requirement). They need him to work a specific number of days per year, not constantly being off work and asking to take it as unpaid. That said, they should communicate clearly about how/ whether he will be paid for things like sick leave and the broken down van.

@JumpinJacques What do you mean by the phrase 'he's been paid AL'? Surely he's just been paid his wage? If he didn't book it as annual leave, what makes you think his entitlement has been used up/gone down?

Where I work you have to use all your paid annual leave before any unpaid leave is considered (and won't necessarily be approved). This is because unpaid leave is extra work for payroll, so they don't want to have to deduct pay in middle of the year unnecessarily because if that person doesn't use all their holiday, then they will have to be paid for the unpaid holiday at the end of the year (which is more calculations and work). Its less work for the company when people only take unpaid leave once they've run out of paid leave. The only exception is unpaid parental leave, which by law the business have to agree to if all the government guidelines are followed re: notice, duration and eligibility.

Because his pay slip says Holiday x amount of hours.

I've never had a job where you can just take large chuncks of unpaid leave, just because you don't want to use your annual leave.
How could a company operate if people just kept taking time off all over the place and saying "it's OK I don't need to be paid"
You have a contract to work, they expect you there to do that work, the work needs to be done.
Surley unpaid leave is for emergencies only, not so you can take as much leave as you want.

He agreed a contract to work x days a year for x amount of money. He can't just unilaterally decide to actually work less days for less money, that's not how employment goes.

So I think they are correct to have assumed time off was annual leave.
Except the sick say and the day the van was faulty, he needs to challenge those days.