taking away holidays from employee's

[gilly100788]

Hi, We have just been informed that our company(which only has 11 people) is going to take away 5 days of our holidays, does any body know if this is legal to do, we have to sign a new contract to say that we agree ?

[excelsior-1]

i have no knowledge of employment law - but i would hope that it is not allowed.

do you have union on site to assist you?

[bert_h]

Consult your trade union. But I think (just think) that if you won't sign the new contract, they are legally obliged to offer you redundancy with full compensation instead. But it's their choice; you can't force them to stick to the old contract.

[carolegif]

There are laws guaranteeing your holiday entitlement. If you exceed this, then I suppose your employer can take them away. Go onto the government website where you will be able to see what a normal entitlement is.

[gilly100788]

No unfortunately no union, I just wondered if any body on here had any employment law knowledge,as we dont want them just to get away with doing this. thanks anyway.

[pastafreak]

these sites may be of use...

http://www.acas.org.u...x.aspx?articleid=1360

http://www.direct.gov...t/employees/index.htm

[bert_h]

Well, the Citizens' Advice Bureau is there for things like this.

[carolegif]

Go to direct.gov.uk they have all the details you will need.

[gilly100788]

we started with 25 days holiday and then you got 1 day for every year you were here up to the total of 31 days holiday which we all have now as we have been here about 20 yrs.! This is in our last contract that we have 31 days, none of us want to sign the new contract.

[pastafreak]

From Directgov.

All workers have a right to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave, but your employer may offer more.

[gilly100788]

Thanks for all your answers i shall look into this futher regarding clivepenanswer as i had heard someone else say about buying back the holiday.

[Ellipsis]

You are entitled to 28 days holiday each year, including Bank Holidays. In most normal years there are 8 Bank Holidays (last year and this year being exceptions, with 9), so your minimum holiday allowance excluding Bank Holidays would be 20. If you are currently getting 31 this is quite generous in the private sector.

If your firm is struggling then negotiating reduced holidays, rather than reduced salaries or some redundancies, would be a solution. However, I'm surprised they would just "inform" you of this without some explanation of the alternatives they'd considered ...

[gilly100788]

exactaly ! we received a letter informing us of this friday, no meeting just a memo

[MarkRae]

Many years ago I worked for a company which similarly offered an additional day's holiday per completed year of service, but it was stated very clearly in the contract of employment that this was a company benefit IN ADDITION to the statutory holiday entitlement, and could be taken away (either individually or globally) without replacement at any time.

If this describes your situation, I'm not sure what you can do about it other than be grateful for the extra unpaid holiday you've had over the years or look for another job.

As another reply has suggested, times are hard...

[factor-fiction]

I assume, mark, that they were PAID holidays.

gilly- they have to give the required notice (in accordance with your notice period). You can refuse but need to be aware of the consequences.