[bloomblaze]

Hi all

In work, has anyone here here ever lost their holidays because their company/employer doesn't carry holidays over from one year to the next?

In my workplace this is happening to 2 people, it has been impossible to take holidays during the later part of 2011 due to being short staffed(usual story) ie people leaving/sickness etc and the company has a policy of not allowing staff to carry over holiday time from one year to the next, ie if you dont take all your holidays for 2011 within the year 2011, they are not carried forward into 2012 and no payment is given for them; you would lose the remaining holiday allowance for 2011.

Im curious, has anyone here had this happen to them in their job?

thanks

[TheCurlyHairedDude]

I mean they should be able to do that...

They're allowed to not allow the carrying over of paid holidays, but if you're willing to take them and they won't let you then WTF - These bitches right hereee....

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by bloomblaze)
In work, has anyone here here ever lost their holidays because their company/employer doesn't carry holidays over from one year to the next?

Yes, it's fairly standard. Otherwise people could save up their leave from year to year (quite possible reducing performance due to fatigue) and then take months off after a few years, which is often not manageable from the employers viewpoint.

In this sort of situation, you should always go through the leave process, whatever the working conditions, and then get that request rejected by your employer. Then you have a strong case (which any unions will support) to carry over days into the next leave year. However, you can usually only negotiate the carry over of a few days, 5-10 out of your 25ish, regardless of how many you have left to take. Otherwise the employer leaves themselves liable to trying to manage work while employees are taking masses of additional leave in one year.

Customers/production is planned on the basis of getting a certain amount of work out of staff in a certain amount of time. The fact that staff don't take leave one year, is not a defence against the problems of staff taking more leave in the next year. Nor is cashflow in a business designed to pay staff for leave days not taken. Leave is as much about retaining performance by having well rested staff as anything else, so not taking leave is not necessarily the performance bonus you might expect.

Bottom line taking leave is a two way process and the employee has to plan to take leave as much as the employer does. Always apply for the leave you want and get it rejected if you want to negotiate carry over or lost-leave pay.

[OnlyMe!]

A similiar thing happened to me; when I first started working part-time (on a zero hour contract), I was not informed of my holiday rights. It's only after my manager's neice (who also worked there part-time) took her holidays that I realised!

[Forum User]

Your employer can't both refuse to allow you to take holiday and refuse to allow you to carry over your holiday - for obvious reasons, otherwise the statutory entitlement to holiday would be completely meaningless. However the employer can require you to take holiday at specific times as long as there is a valid reason for doing so.

I suggest that the relevant employees put their grievances in writing to their line manager. If no action is taken then they could consider going to an employment tribunal. This would be much easier if they were a member of a union as in that case the union would provide guidance as to the correct procedure.

[bloomblaze]

(Original post by OnlyMe!)
A similiar thing happened to me; when I first started working part-time (on a zero hour contract), I was not informed of my holiday rights. It's only after my manager's neice (who also worked there part-time) took her holidays that I realised!

How much holiday time did you lose?

[JordanS93]

I've been working as for various companies on 3 - 4 month contracts and have never had a holiday. But when I get my final pay slip from them, I get the cash payment equal to the days of holiday I haven't used. This normally amounts to a few hundred pounds extra.

Maybe the same will happen to you at the end of the financial year. But it depends on what company you work for. I've worked for big companies: Tesco, Blockbuster etc that are meant to do it. My mother never gets her holiday entitlement or the payoff at the end of the financial year. But this is because she works for a small local business where she is lucky to get NMW. Alot of people who work there get £3-4 and hour and all the employees are over 40 years.

[Chulabomb]

(Original post by bloomblaze)
Hi all

In work, has anyone here here ever lost their holidays because their company/employer doesn't carry holidays over from one year to the next?

In my workplace this is happening to 2 people, it has been impossible to take holidays during the later part of 2011 due to being short staffed(usual story) ie people leaving/sickness etc and the company has a policy of not allowing staff to carry over holiday time from one year to the next, ie if you dont take all your holidays for 2011 within the year 2011, they are not carried forward into 2012 and no payment is given for them; you would lose the remaining holiday allowance for 2011.

Im curious, has anyone here had this happen to them in their job?

thanks

By law they have to pay your any holiday allowance not used up at the end of that year. They can refuse to carry over unused holiday but they must pay you for it.