Denied Annual Leave Pay

[chiara_c]

Hi everyone, I`m a Pool Worker by definition, contracted to 7.5 hours a week. This is because I work on Saturday`s from 0900 to 1730 including an hours unpaid lunch. I work for the Council and we are in the middle of some major restructuring, so morale is very low as expected. Consequently, the powers that be, have stopped Annual Leave pay for all Pool Workers. This is mainly because no Pool Workers are members of the Trade Union so higher management are exploiting this fact. Without the backing of fellow colleagues, there cannot be a grievance or dispute without strength in numbers. The Trade Union representative is therefore urging Pool Workers to join, but only a handful will join. The Annual Leave pay will be substantial because most Pool Workers quadruple their contracted hours. Any advice on this situation would be appreciated, Chiara Chambers

[cal37]

According to the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations, part-timers must be treated at least as well as equivalent full-time workers, unless the reason why not can be objectively justified. An 'equivalent' full-time worker is one doing a similar job on the same type of contract.

The Working Time Regulations state that all workers have the right to a minimum amount of annual holiday. From 1 October 2007 the statutory minimum entitlement is 4.8 weeks holiday a year, based on your normal working week.

Under the regulations part-timers should be treated no less favourably; this normally means that a part time worker will get a pro rata proportion of what the full-time workers get.
Your employer can't round down the number of days given, because this would be unfavourable treatment, but fractions of a day might be given as hours.
Your employer can control when you take your holiday so they can make you take bank holidays from this entitlement when they coincide with your working days.

Raise a grievance and point out that they can not just stop Annual Leave pay for part time workers under the above act.You have a right to do this even if you are not a member of a union, do not let them tell you otherwise !!

[chiara_c]

Thank you, yeah; I don`t want to be bullied into joining the Trade Union, but to no avail. So how would I go about raising a grievance, is there a standard procedure? Thanks for this, Chiara Chambers

[Sidewinder]

Originally Posted by chiara_c

Thank you, yeah; I don`t want to be bullied into joining the Trade Union, but to no avail. So how would I go about raising a grievance, is there a standard procedure? Thanks for this, Chiara Chambers

The Council should have a documented Grievance Procedure, which the HR department should be able to provide. Failing that, a letter to the Head of personnel should suffice, headed 'Formal Grievance', outlining your understanding of the way that Holiday Pay has apparently been stopped, and asking for an explanation of theCouncil's position, and how this manages to still comply with legislation which lays down the right to paid holiday.

Trade Union membership is not a prerequisite to receiving basic employment rights. If you have a contract for 7.5 hours per week then you have a right to paid holiday (as stated above 4.8 x your normal working week). You can only take the holiday at a time agreed by your employer, but they cannot treat you unfavourably compared to full time staff.

[cal37]

Sidewinder gave good advice concerning how to raise a grievance, it’s a simple procedure and you have the right to bring a witness into the meeting.
If you need more advice concerning the grievance procedure etc feel free to ask here or via PM.

Do not feel bullied into joining a union, if the union is putting pressure on you, then make a complaint via your HR dept, ask them to speak to the full time official and I’m sure the bulling will stop.

Regards,

Cal