Resignation after Mat Leave & Holiday Pay issues

[littlebunny]

Hi All

This is my first post and I hope someone is able to help with my query!

I am having problems agreeing to how much holiday pay I should be getting from my company. Here are the details:

I have worked at the company for 6 years, 3 days a week. I have been on Maternity Leave and this ends mid-May (52 weeks). I received Stat Mat Pay for 39 weeks. I resigned 3 weeks ago.

In my contract (dated to 2009 before new allowance on stat holidays was increased) it states that I have 20 days of holiday per year. This is pro-rated to 12.5 days per year because I was working 3 days a week. There is nothing about rolling unused holidays into the next year.

We are a small firm with no HR department and my boss is a bully.

She is telling me that she only owes me for 3 days of holiday. I believe that I am entitled to the full 12.5 days (as well as any new additions to the law since April 2009 - I had my ds in May 2009).

Is anyone able to advise on how much holiday pay I have accumulated while on leave?

Many thanks!

In terms of how much holiday you are entitled to in total, the most recent changes took it up to 5.6 weeks a year, which can include bank holidays. So if your employer offers 20 days a year to full timers, as long as they also give bank holidays off paid, then that's fine and meet the statutory requirements - 5 days a week x 5.6 weeks = 28 days, which could be the 20 days holiday entitlement plus the normal 8 bank holidays.

As someone who works 3 days a week you are entitled to 5.6 weeks x 3 days = 16.8 days, which you'd expect to be rounded up to 17 days. Again this can include bank holidays.

If your contract says nothing about rolling unused holidays into the next year you should assume rolling over is not permitted.

When does your holiday year run from and to and what happens about bank holidays where you work?

Thanks so much for your response!

It was never stated when my holiday year ran. But I always used January - January.

As for Bank Holidays - I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday so I only took bank holidays that fell on those days. I wasn't compensated for any Bank Holidays I missed - but I didn't realise I may have been entitled to this.

Because I was on Mat Leave, I would not have been able to roll over unused holidays - am I still entitled to them?

Many thanks.

Had you taken any holiday before you started ML and if so could you have taken more days than you had accrued at tha point ? You wouldn't necessarily have been creditted with BH's if they didn't fall on the days you were contracted to work or a prorated no. hours may have been included in your Leave allowance, depends on the system operated by the company, but maybe that is why it hadn't come up before now.

I had taken holiday before ML, but not more than I accrued.

No one (!) has ever taken ML from my company before (as there is such a high staff turn-over) so there is no "system" in place.

Your employer can apply any normal rules about holiday, regardless of maternity leave, so if they don't normally allow holiday to be carried over, they don't have to allow you to do so. You should have been given every opportunity to take your holiday though, so if you tried to take holiday that would be accrued during 2009 before you went on maternity leave and were prevented from doing so, that's different.

In terms of holiday accrued this year, assuming your employer work out holiday for leavers based on complete months worked, you'd get paid holiday for Jan, Feb, March and April. 17 days a year is 1.42 days a month, so you'd get 5.68 days, rounded up to 6.

In terms of holiday for 2009, you'd need to make an argument that you were not aware you couldn't carry it over, they should have encouraged you to take it before you went on mat leave if that was the case, and should therefore pay it to you.