New employee with 3 week holiday booked

[springlamb]

Well, further to recent threads when you've all been so helpful to me, we seem to have found a new member of our little team.
He has been very honest and told us he has a 3 week holiday booked for April. He was rather embarrassed telling us and don't think he would push for full holiday pay for this period.
How do I stand regarding holiday pay if he begins work next week? We are a very small company and it would really create cash flow problems.
Can I give a short term contract until he goes on holiday and give him a 'bonus' to go away with? Then begin a permanent contract on his return?
Any ideas gratefully received

I'd be inclined to give him his permanent contract as normal, but come to some agreement with him that he will take, say, 2 weeks of that out of his annual leave entitlement and 1 week as unpaid leave, or something similar. Much simpler!

I am assuming that the cash flow problem means that you will struggle to pay 3 weeks holiday pay in one go? Although your employees are obviously entitled to 4.8 weeks paid holiday a year, you are perfectly within your rights as the employer to tell them when they are taking it rather than the other way around if that helps you.

Why would it create cashflow problems - surely you pay people for their holidays? Can't you just allow him the holiday and make sure he is clear that this is the bulk of his paid annual leave entitlement, which I guess it must be

Ah, got it. He's a weekly person paid in cash rather than BACS

Thanks flowery that does help me.
I will offer half paid/half unpaid (so 7 days out of his allowance of 24 days) and I will stipulate that he needs to save enough annual leave to cover the Xmas shut-down.
Blimey, all this bossiness going to my head....

Half and half sounds a good compromise, and of course fine to tell him to save some for Christmas break as well.

No, no Marina, nothing dodgy going on here! We have been a very small business for 15 years and in the last few months have expanded into bigger premises. This will be our first employee! It has taken a long time to find him.
Our throughput will really suffer to lose him for 3 weeks and we shall probably have to draft in casual, so it would be hard on the cash flow to have to pay him up front as well, so early on in his career (!hark at me!) with us.