Been advised to repost in this section. Can anyone help me please.

[BradysBird]

I would be very grateful for some advice please.

I handed my notice in on 1/04/10 after being off sick for 3 months - recieving stat sick pay.

I had been working at the company for 15 months prior to this and have taken no holiday this year (we have 20 days per year of holiday)

I left the company because of a very uncomfortable working environment after a male co-worker developed a very strong 'crush' on me which ended up with the police becoming involved, work had nothing to say on the matter as it all happened off work premises. Its a small family run company so you can imagine how difficult it would've been to bring up the situation with my boss.

So, my question is - am I entitled to the holiday pay? I desperatly need the money and have tried googling my question and get conflicting advice. I am dreading calling my boss to ask her so would rather be informed before I speak to her.

If anyone knows anything I would be very grateful, helpful websites would also be appreciated.

Thanks

Does your contract say anything about this either way?

Does your holiday 'year' start in January?

Assuming it does (and there's nothing on this issue in your contract), I would have thought you would be entitled to your unused holidays on a pro-rata basis, so 1/3 of the yearly entitlement (again assuming you gave one months notice and therefore the last day of your employment was 1/5). so that's about 6.7 days you need to be paid for by my calculations.

am no expert, but thats my take on it. Am sure others will be here who can give more detailed advice! Sounds a stressful situation that you are well out of btw.

I don't have a copy of my contract unfortuately.

I'm pretty sure my holidays are renewed yearly. I handed my notice in on 1/4 and it states that my date of leaving is 1/4 on the p60 i recieved yesterday.

I have had a payment of £158 made into my bank account, but i had assumed this was 3 weeks of sick pay that was outstanding.

I know the easist thing to do would be to call her and ask but the last time i spoke to her was in december and I heard nothing from her until the p60 arrived. I sound pathetic now but she is a very hard and intimidating woman and i'm a little bit scared to ring

You are entitled to accrue holiday up to the date your employment ends, so yes you will be entitled to any holiday accrued during this holiday year and not taken. You are entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks holiday a year, so you will get at least the appropriate proportion of that.

You need to contact your boss and get your leaving date changed and get your holiday paid. If you handed in your notice on 1 April that isn't your end date. How much notice are you required to give, a month? Your employment should continue (and therefore SSP continue) until your notice has run out.

I can't give any advice re the holiday pay, but just want to say don't be scared to ring your old boss. She may be hard and intimidating but she's no longer your boss and you've no reason to fear her.

Please call ACAS 0844 875 0087. You can contact them for any kind of worklated issues, they know all your rights. They are very helpful and you can be 100% sure their advise is correct.

They helped me a lot with Maternity leave issues.

Once you have got the facts right you can approach work. If they dont agree, just say you were infomred by ACAS about this.

By jaabaar Tue 11-May-10 13:53:25
"Please call ACAS 0844 875 0087. You can contact them for any kind of worklated issues, they know all your rights. They are very helpful and you can be 100% sure their advise is correct."

I'm afraid that isn't the case, unfortunately. ACAS's online information and guidance booklets are brilliant, but their advice line is notoriously inconsistent and sometimes scarily inaccurate. They advised a poster on MN that she didn't accrue holiday at all during maternity leave, which is shocking.

If your boss requires an official source to prove you are entitled to accrue holiday, use a government website like Directgov or Businesslink, both of which have sections on holiday and confirm how much minimum holiday is.

Flowerybeanbag.

They helped me very much in my case. Actually it was regarding accuring holiday during ML which my office didnt want to give me as I started ML in Jan to DEC (exactly the year I have to take the holidays).

They explained I am not entitled to take them over to the next year but to shorten the maternity leave and then get full paid holiday.

I was very happy with their help. I suppose that it can vary as per the experience you explained above.

By the way ACAS is the Government's free conciliation and arbitration service.

Oh absolutely. I'm glad they helped you, they help lots of people I know. But I felt the need to respond when you said the OP could be 100% sure their advice was accurate because that's just not the case at all.

Your best bet for ensuring accuracy as much as possible is to find a written government source, that way you know the information is most likely to be up to date and will have been checked carefully. ACAS's website would be included in that.

I have also found their advice line unreliable. They get it right sometimes, but if they cannot be relied on to get it right all the time they really cannot be used as an authority who's advice can be quoted as definitive.

As an example, my employer when conducting the appeal hearing against my unfair dismissal, claimed that ACAS had advised him that the temp who took over my job (and has now been given it on a permanent basis) was a suitable person to chair the appeal and make a decision on whether to uphold it or not. Yes that's right, a person who directly profits from booting me out was put forward to carry out an independent review of the dismissal. My employer seemed to think that quoting advice from ACAS covered him because they are an official body. But remember their advice has no legal force (because they keep getting it wrong!)

My solicitor thought it was hilarious.

I don't know who these advisers are but I can't imagine they are legally qualified.

It is true that the ACAS code of practice is regarded as persuasive in deciding on employment tribunal cases. But the advice given by the advisers has no legal force and can often be downright misleading.

There is no substitute for advice from a good employment lawyer.