Can anyone in HR advise please? Holiday/time off/unpaid leave

[Girlmath]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help me please? I had a PT job with a big public employer for a few months. It was an awful experience and I stuck it out for a few months but in the end I left following an incident.
Basically some men treated me badly on a shift and I spoke to my supervisors and left. They were supportive. I handed my notice in with immediate effect but my manager was very nice and said could she hold on to it for a bit and would I come in and speak to her about the incident.
I went in and spoke to her and she assured me the men had been dealt with and nothing like that would happen again. I was off just over 2 weeks.
One of the men apologised upon my return, I had already started looking for new jobs but I thought I'd try going back and see how it went whilst I job hunted as I really needed the money.
Anyway I got a new job a few weeks later so handed my notice in.
I've been underpaid and my payslips aren't correct so I've contacted them to try and resolve it.
However, when I left I ended up owing them 8 holiday hours which was on my payslip as a deduction. I never booked any holiday and according to the gov holiday calculator I would have accrued approx 2.2 weeks of holiday. There are several issues with my payslips that I won't go in to but I never actually had an holiday appear on my payslips.
I'm assuming what's happened is that when I was 'off' after the incident they have put me down as holiday despite me not booking it and it not being holiday.
My question is can they do this? Given the circumstances of the absence I would have preferred it be taken as unpaid leave so I wouldn't have to owe them 8 hours holiday.

If you were there a few months you didn't accrue 2.2 weeks of holiday.
Were there any bank holidays while you worked there? They will likely have come off holiday allowance.

I worked there 21 weeks and 3 days.

If I'm entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday a year I think that looks to be approx 2.2 weeks pro rata?

That's what the gov.uk holiday calculator came too too with inputting my start and finish dates? Off the top of my head I think it said 2.29 weeks maybe.

I was contracted 3 days a week so that would mean a holiday entitlement of maybe 7 working days?

I didn't have any bank holidays off. I didn't work any bank holidays days as my rota'd days didn't fall on any.

I didn't book/request any holiday in my time there.

Are you sure the calculator said 2.2 weeks and not days?

I’m not sure holiday necessarily appears on payslips - it doesn’t on mine anyway.

“Given the circumstances of the absence I would have preferred it be taken as unpaid leave so I wouldn't have to owe them 8 hours holiday.” How would this result in a different outcome? If it was unpaid leave you’d still have the money deducted.

I've just re-done the calculator having inputted my start and finish date.
I was contracted three shifts a week.
This makes me think I would have been entitled to approx 7 shifts worth of holiday for my employment period?

You will end up in the same financial situation if they try and 'fix' it, as you'd have to pay back all the holiday, then they would pay back the underpayment, and then pay out any holiday you were due. So it won't make sense to.

Realistically no, they shouldn't have put it down as holiday but were probably trying to do you a favour to ensure you didn't end up unpaid. In situations before I've paid as holiday and then made a mental note to check with the person as soon as they come back to work. It's unfortunate they didn't, but equally you could have flagged it when you were paid as being 'overpaid' if you assumed it would be unpaid!

Sorry if I didn't make it clear in my original post but I haven't been paid any holiday. My partner works for the same organisation and his holiday pay appears as a line on his payslips. None of my payslips have any holiday pay on but it's said when I left that I owe holiday (line item on payslip)
It says I owe 8 hours holiday and has been deducted from my pay. 8 hours is equivalent to two shifts for me as I worked three 4-hour shifts a week. I appreciate this is probably not a lot of money to most MN-ers but it really is a lot to me in my situation.

But you were paid for the hours you were off work? Did you not challenge that at the time you were paid?

Or were you unpaid for those 2 weeks AND had these hours deducted?

Also, were there any days bank holiday/Christmas close down weeks during the time you were there?

Sorry I'm not articulating the situation very well and to be honest my assumption that they put me down as holiday for that time period has probably muddied the waters.
I was not paid for that time off, nor was I paid holiday pay.
However, I'm assuming it was put down as holiday as I've ended up owing them 8 hours despite not taking any holiday during my time there.
I finished in November and my last payslip was in December. I've contacted them with my concerns but awaiting a response as I've been passed to another person.

Did you have a sick note for the two weeks you took off. Was it holiday or unpaid leave. Or sick leave

I handed my notice in, my manager held on to it until I spoke with her. This was 2 weeks later and I went back to work on my next shift following that meeting. I don't really know what that period was to be honest!

You need to ask them why you owe the 8 hours then. I think the leave has complicated things. So you were still employed during those two weeks even thoughnyou had handed in your notice. But weren't paid. They need to explain how they have worked it out, Send an email if you don't want to speak to them.

Just get in touch and tell them you were surprised to be told you owe them 8 hours and ask them to explain how they've worked it out. They should be able to tell you the start and end dates they've used and the leave dates they've recorded.