What happens to unused hours of holiday

[Hellohelloworld]

So this is got 12 hours left on my holidays until the end of march. But i haven't got a way to use them my job didn't say nothing about them. So what will happen to them? I'm in a contract.
the new leave year will start in april and i don't want to lose that, what i was thinking was, could they just pay me that money extra without me taking the holiday?

@Anonforthis58 OP said in her initial post that she can’t use them.

To be fair, the OP said she didn't have a way of using them and I am not clear exactly what that means. It could mean that she hasn't got any holiday plans, rather than she is prevented from using them. Given that it is 12 hours and there are still several weeks to the end of the year, it is perfectly legitimate for her to say to the employer that she wants to take the leave before the end of the year and they need to work out how she can do so. If it is statutory leave, they must provide a reasonable opportunity to take the leave, and it can't be hard to find 12 hours leave over several weeks. Technically (although enforcing it in practice is not easy) the employer is also responsible for ensuring her the opportunity to take leave due, as much as she is for ensuring that she uses her leave.

How do you mean you have no way of using them?

Is your employer actually stopping you from taking them. Could you take an hour every evening and finish early.

You need to speak with your employer as all we can do is guess.

Where I work you carry them forward as long as it is no more than a week!

Legally you’re entitled to 28 days holiday a year (that includes bank holidays).

But in reality companies absolutely don’t adhere to that. My company you can carry over 35 hours, but anything else you can’t take you lose. And it is notoriously difficult to get holiday where I work, so most people lose between 20/30 hours a year.

This is partly not helped by the fact that you can buy extra holiday, and so a lot of people do just that, and take that holiday meaning those who have statutory holiday aren’t able to take it.

They should have a policy. In my work you can carry over the equivalent of 1 working week, anything above that gets lost.

If you can't take them, they must pay you for them. Many companies try to wiggle out of it, but it's not legal. Speak to ACAS if they try this.

I don't get it either. Even if the OP is not planning to go away,why are they not just taking time off?

Really? Even if a contract says you lose them if not taken?

You should speak to your line manager and ask if you can sell the holiday back or if they roll it over to the new year, or if you have to use it.

We lose our days if we don't use them

I am sorry but that is not true. You are entitled to take holiday but you cannot be forced to take holiday. Unbelievably some people don't! But it is only lawful to pay for untaken statutory holiday if the employee is leaving having not taken their entitlement. Employers cannot pay statutory hoiliday instead of the employee taking it ubder other circumstances. If it is contractual (above statutory) then the employer can make any rules they want about that.

I think if you’ve had the opportunity over a full year to book the leave and haven’t done so then this isn’t necessarily true, unless you’ve been blocked from taking leave over a whole year.

@MrsSunshine2b just checked - not true. From CAB website You might lose your holiday if you haven’t given enough notice to take your remaining holiday before the end of the leave year. You can ask for it, but your employer doesn’t have to let you take it.

That's still not true. The entitlement is to leave, not pay. If the employer blocks you from possibly taking leave then the case for a tribunal is stopping an employee from taking leave, not failure to pay for it.

The reason is obvious - unscrupulous employers (and to be fair, daft employees!) would force people to work with rest breaks and simply pay to take their leave entitlement from them. Leave is required - people are not machines, and they need periods of rest. So the law is clear that there is a minimum amount of leave that someone must be permitted to take and cannot be "bought" from them. Technically the employer may carry some of that over (although that is poor practice and not entirely permissible in law), but flexibility does occur where both parties agree (in other words, nobody is complaining so it flies under the legal radar).

The only exception is where someone has been unable to take leave due to long term sickness, in which case only a maximum of 4 weeks (not 5.6) can be carried over (so they effectively lose 8 days in a full year) but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

Importantly, however, in the case of Smith v Pimlico Plumbers Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 70, the Court of Appeal made it clear that in order for a worker to lose their right to paid leave in any given leave year, the following three conditions must be met:

• the worker must have been given the opportunity to take paid annual leave
• the worker must have been encouraged to take paid annual leave, and
• the worker must have been informed that the right to paid leave would be lost at the end of the leave year, if not taken during the leave year in which it was accrued.

https://www.davidsonmorris.com/use-it-or-lose-it-holiday-policy/

But that is not what you said. You said that the employer must pay you for untaken holiday. That is not true.

The part that you have quoted (out of the full context) is a case about the employer refusing to allow an employee to take their actual leave - not pay instead of leave. There is no evidence at all that the employer has refused a fair opportunity for the OP to take leave (they still have several; weeks to do so as well) or that the OP hasn't had the opportunity to take it as opposed to simply not having taken it.

The advice you therefore gave originally was incorrect - you said "If you can't take them, they must pay you for them. Many companies try to wiggle out of it, but it's not legal. Speak to ACAS if they try this."

So your quote was still wrong. You implied they legally have to allow you to roll holidays over, but no, they don’t. Anyone can argue a person has 12 full months to take their 1 month leave .. therefore point 1 is covered 🤷‍♀️

I've just looked into this in more depth, and for casual workers or if you leave before taking it they have to pay, but otherwise, they have to give you the chance to take it. They can carry over a certain amount with your agreement.

It has to cover all 3 clauses.

OP states that she isn't allowed to take it before the leave year ends, that the employer has not mentioned it to her or encouraged her to take it, and that she was not told about the use it or lose it policy.

Use it or lose it unless it can be carried over. At my place, you can sell any unused holiday as well

We can carry a set amount to the next year, but any extra we loose.

You do seem to play fast and loose with words. The OP has said none of those things. She has said "i haven't got a way to use them" which is not the same thing as being refused the right to take them. She has said nothing about whether the employer has mentioned it to her or encouraged her to take the leave. And she doesn't know what the policy might be because instead of asking the employer she is posting it here. The OP still has time to take 12 hours of leave in the next weeks if she engages in a convresation with her employer.

I realise that you want to be right. But you aren't right. The ball is in the OP's court.

Whatever you say sweetie.

Totally depends on your contract, but ordinarily if you can’t take them because your manager won’t allow you to take them, they must pay you for them.
If you can take them, do! Taking leave is important for your health and wellbeing.

Sigh. Can we please stop saying this? Unless it is the termination point of employment, there is no legal avenue for paying for untaken leave. The employer can do it - but it would be unlawful for them to buy back statutory leave. Assuming the employee didn't complain to a tribunal, then the matter goes under the radar, but the fact that nobody complains does not make it legal.