Should Annual Leave Be Pro-Rata'd Back To Me?

[MrsBounty]

Good morning,

in Summer 2015 I received notification from my employer that, due to the downturn in the industry, my contract was being changed from working 5 days per week to 9 days per fortnight. My salary and annual leave entitlement was reduced by 5% and 2.5 days respectively.

This worked out at me taking 2 unpaid days off per month, equalling 24 unpaid days per year.

All was well for the remainder of 2015 but in 2016, the Company secured several contracts, which increased my workload and only took 6 days off and worked (and was paid for) the remaining 18 days.

I contacted HR earlier this week to alert them of this and asked how many annual leave days are due back to me for the 2016 period since I ended up rarely taking the lieu days. I received a response this morning informing me that because I was paid for the days I am not due back any annual leave.

The contract I received upon starting my employment specifically states that I do not get paid overtime - but I'm not sure if this is classed as overtime?

Also, the annual leave entitlement meets the government directed minimum and no more (20 days per year plus 8 public holidays) so I have worked (almost) full time and received less than the minimum annual leave entitlement.

Can you guys help me out with if I should be receiving anything back from my employer or are they correct?

Many thanks

[fiction-factory]

You should earn holidays for the extra days you work. However could it be that your employer has paid you a rate that includes holiday pay- I know my employers do this (for effectively zero hours contacts)

[MrsBounty]

Thank you for your response. I didn't receive extra for working the days I was meant to have off, just my normal salary was paid for 9 months.

[fiction-factory]

I am not sure I understand the arrangements when your hours reduced- you say you r hours changed from 5 days a week to 9 days a fortnight which sounds a reduction of 10% yet your pay fell by only 5% and your holidays fell by what seems to be somewhere between just under 10% . So maybe the terms were generous to include some extra allowance for situations like this

[chelle7272]

Yes you are entitled to annual leave for the extra days, so if it has not been paid I would certainly query it with them.

[MrsBounty]

Sorry my mistake, it was 10% it was reduced by. I'd just been chatting to a colleague who had a salary reduction of 5% rather than 9 day fortnight etc., so the figure was fresh in my mind, silly *** I am.

[fiction-factory]

So what is your contracted paid annual leave entitlement now?

I am assuming the 24 days unpaid leave you refer to is the 1 day a fortnight you are not now contracted to work (although as there are 26 fortnights in a year that should be 26 days)

[fiction-factory]

I am basicall wondering if you have been paid all your entitlement since you were paid on 6 of the days when you took a holiday on what would otherwise have had to be an unpaid holiday. But we really need to know what your new paid holiday entitlement is/should be based on your actual worked hours, how many paid days holiday you took and how many of these were you paid for.

[MrsBounty]

My annual leave entitlement is 25.5 days, which was adjusted from 28 when I received the letter informing me of the 9 day fortnight.

I'm not sure where you're getting the 26 days from? I've just gone through the 2016 calendar and still got that I should have taken 24 unpaid days off (I was taking every 2nd Friday, though the day I took off on the 2nd week was never dictated to me).

From January - March 2016, I took every second Friday commencing Friday 15th Jan. April is the first month I worked the full month and haven't taken an unpaid day since then.

[MrsBounty]

I wasn't paid for 6 of them. The 6 days I had during the 1st quarter were unpaid.

Workload increased and I was asked to work the lieu days until further notice, which I did.

My annual leave entitlement had been pro-rata'd down from 28 days to 25.5 days per year based on the change, which I took throughout the year. I think that because I worked full time for the last 9 months of the year, the annual leave entitlement should be pro-rata's back up to reflect and meet minimum requirement.

[fiction-factory]

26 days came from 26 fortnights in a year, but never mind as that is probably not a major factor.
So your entitlement was 28 then fell to 25.5 and presumably now should be around 27 for that calendar year based on the extra hours you have worked (the exact figure depends on the holiday year cut off dates).
So how many days paid holiday did you get in total? Does that include paid bank holidays?

[bhg481]

ff is (quite rightly) pointing out that there are 12 calendar months in a year but 13 lunar months, a lunar month being 4 weeks. That means that taking every second Friday off you are taking 26 days, not 24 days.

[fiction-factory]

2016 was a leap year so does that complicate things a bit too?

[MrsBounty]

I had 25.5 days paid holiday, which included 8 bank holidays.

The holiday year is 1st Jan - 31st Dec.

[fiction-factory]

So it looks to me as if you should go back and ask why they have not increased the 25.5 days figure for your entitlement to something like 27 in accordance with the statutory mimimum holidays arrangement.

(The only caveat is I am not sure about the bit where you say " since I ended up rarely taking the lieu days"-does that mean you took some days in lieu?. I am not sure whether you feel this is relevant

[MrsBounty]

The response I received from HR is that I won't get any back to me as I was paid for the days. This makes no sense to me (and wanted to be armed with information before I reverted back to HR).

All I meant by it is that I had taken 6 days in the 1st quarter before it got busy and never did take any more unpaid leave.

I too worked out that I should have had 27 days altogether based on the information.

[fiction-factory]

Hi- have you had chance to raise this again with HR, MrsB?