Christams Hoildays

[Epurvis83]

I work full time and get 20 days hoilday a year, which i have taken but my employer had decided to close down for 2 weeks over the christmas and we wont be getting paid as its a private run buisness, is this ok to do? x

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

First point: Under the 'old' rules (i.e. prior to 1 October 2007) your statutory holiday entitlement was calculated as 4 times the number of days you work each week. So if you work 5 days per week (as I assume you do) your holiday entitlement would have been 20 days.

However, the multiplier rose from 4 to 4.8 from 1 October 2007. In future your holiday entitlement (based upon a 5 day week) will be 24 days per year. For 2007, the old rules applied for 9 months and the new rules currently apply for the remaining 3 months. That means that your entitlement to paid holiday, for 2007, is 21 days, not 20. So, even before considering the main part of your question, you seem to be short of a days holiday.

[Buenchico]

Second point: An employer is free to determine which days their employees take their statutory holidays, as long as they give reasonable notice. So, if you knew at the start of the year that the firm would close for 2 weeks over the Christmas period your employer could designate those 2 weeks as 10 days of your paid holiday. Then you'd have been left with just 11 days (because of the new rules, as above) to 'play with'. However, your employer could have also designated other works closure days (e.g. the 5 public holidays which occur outside of the Christmas and New Year period) as part of your statutory holiday, so you'd have been left with perhaps just 6 'flexible' days.

If you were pre-warned that you were meant to include the Christmas period in your statutory holiday entitlement, the employer has every right to refuse to pay you over Christmas since the days off you'll be having are just the same as if you'd asked your employer for additional (unpaid) holiday during the summer period

However, if you were not pre-warned that you must include an extended Christmas period in your holiday calculations, the situation is different. The employer is effectively 'laying you off' for 2 weeks. If so, it's likely that you should still be paid. See here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employe es/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/DG_10026693

For further advice, phone the ACAS helpline on 08457 47 47 47 (0800-1800, Mon-Fri).

Chris

[Twenty20]

Unless it's written in your contract then your employer can't lay you off without pay. Even if it is written into your contract then there is a 'guarantee payment' of (I think) �19.60 per day which the employer has to pay. Check your contract.