Legal entitlement to take holiday?

[thehouseofmirth]

Despite the fact he hates his job DH has managed to still have 5 days holiday left to take by the end of Dec.

His (fairy useless) line manager is now saying DH can't have time off because he is behind on a project. I would completley understand this if DH had just not bothered to do it but the reason he is behind is because the bloke he is doing it for keeps changing his mind and moving goal posts.

He had already emailed his HR dep to ask if he can carry it over to next year as we are expecting a new baby and it would be better than taking paternity leave and losing so much pay but they said no. Can he actually lose this holiday?

No he can't. He must use the holiday. My manager is having to take time off atm because he has to use his holidays up. Though I think some companies will just pay you the extra holiday pay at the end of the holiday period.

They definitely have to at least pay him his holidays and he does have a legal entitlement to use the holidays during the correct times.

Some companies do a scheme where you can 'sell' holiday days - i.e. they pay you for them rather than taking time off. Others will have written into policy that you can carry certain amount of days over (often 5 days).

Would definitely get in contact with HR again, on the phone if poss.

Oh, and it sounds like his line manager is being a bit of an arse, which is not helpful...

He is entitled to 4.8 weeks holiday a year, which is 24 days if he works 5 days a week. However he only has to actually take 4 weeks of that. The rest can be carried over.

So if he is not allowed to take it now (which is perfectly legal), he will not lose it, and could possibly save it for paternity leave.

We have a use it or lose it policy at work (although FloweryBeanBag's comment above is relevant). Our leave year ends on 31 Dec and I had previously been on 6 month contract (with roughly 12 days to be taken between Sep and Mar 09). I was made permanent about a month ago and had to have a discussion about why I was not using all my annual entitlement in 2008 - I have booked 2 weeks holiday after Xmas returning on 10th Jan. Yes technically I am breaking teh rules, but my manager (having told me not to store up leave in the future) has signed it off. I think your DH has a very good case to carry it over.

Intersting Flowery - is everyone legally entitled to carry 4 days leave over then?

Well no, a company can have a policy that holiday must be taken, but if someone is prevented by the employer from taking holiday, they can't lose it.

Thanks for the advice so far. Sorry ther is some more info I should have given you:

His company does have a use it or lose it policy but staff are contractually allowed to carry up to 5 days over. The thing is he actually has 13 days left to take. So he has already carried 5 days to next year (and he can take 3 days when the office is shut over Xmas) but it still leaves 5 days to use up.

DH is obviously a bit of an idiot for leaving it so late (especially in a job he hates and which is so poorly paid) and if he was refused leave any other time of year it wouldn't matter as there would be plenty of time to use it up but it seems unfair to for him to lose it.

Any more advice please? His line is very unhelpful.

If there is a use it or lose it policy (assuming he will have had the required 4 weeks off), and HR are refusing to let him carry it over, they need to instruct his line manager to allow him to take it.

If he is willing to take it but not being allowed to that's not the same as him wanting to carry it over.

Thanks flowerbeanbag, that's super clear. Hopefully they can resolve it tomorrow.