Agency worker, No holiday pay!?!

[stu2525uk]

Looking for help on writing a letter to my other halfs work and other snippets of help I can get from you guys in the know.

 

The situation is my girlfriend has worked for this company(she says they are and agency, they do care work, but I don't know how you would class them as an agency?) for over 6 years. Currently and averagely she does around 50 hours per week usually getting around £1500 before deductions every month.

 

Now the people that work for this company have been told(not exclusively from what I know but she tells me no-one gets it) they are not entitled to holiday pay but until recently(around a year ago) they would take money from her wages and keep it(as holiday pay to give her) and give it to her when she later asked for her holiday money. Now I am pretty sure that this is 'rolled-up holiday pay' which was pretty much outlawed by a European Court of Justice ruling around 2006?

 

Now if they have still been doing this up until only a year ago that seems pretty serious? The fact she doesn't receive holiday pay also for all the time that she has worked there apart from the excuse Agencies used with 'rolled-up holiday pay'.

 

I want to write a letter to her employers outlining the seriousness of this all but have no idea how to put it and what would the consequences be to them? Should it be reported? To who? What to do about it? etc...

 

Now the letter could you guys give me some sort of ideas what to write and how to write it.(She is pretty scared and doesn't want them to know it is anything to do with her so was going to do it anonymously).

 

Your help and advice is very much appreciated.

 

Cheers

Stuart WIlson

[poppynurse]

bump

[paulandgayle07]

Hi hope this helps

 

The agency i work for does this :

 

We acru our holiday hours at a percentage per working day and normally something like an hours wage + 50P deducted from wages.

 

So if i worked for 5 weeks straight - i would acru around 4 days holiday.

 

4 x 7.5hrs @ £6.50ph = 30 x £195 holday pay.

 

Since 46p an hour gets deducted for our holiday entitlement it adds up to about an exrta £60.

 

Sorry if this doesnt make sense but its how our agency works it.

 

Best thing is to ask ACAS or the HR department as everywhere is diffrent.

[stu2525uk]

Is that not what 'Rolled-up holiday pay' is though?

 

A way of Agencies getting around the fact workers are entitled to holidays?

[ErikaPNP]

Yes, it is unlawful. She is still covered by the working time regulations and therefore entitled to 4.8 weeks paid annual leave, however if her hours and/or pay vary then her pay over the most recent 12 week period are divided by the hours she worked over that 12 week period to ascertain an average hourly rate which is then used to ascertain what her holiday pay should be.

 

The 12 weeks should not be twelve consecutive weeks if she has not worked for twelve consecutive weeks, it should be based on the last twelve weeks in which she had work.

[stu2525uk]

How would I word a letter to her employers telling them this?

 

And how they are and have been denying their employees these rights for the past 5-6 years?

[ajax95]

It might be a good idea to see if your girlfriend still has a copy of her contract.

 

It's been said here already, a lot of agencies have different policies, but fishing out that contract could possibly give her that extra bit of ammo

Edited April 5, 2009 by ajax95
extra info

[stu2525uk]

She or her sister who also work there have never been issued with a contract.

[Faustus]

Well, By failing to provide either a Contract of employment or a written statement within 2 months the Agency could find itself having Terms and conditions imposed upon itself by an Employment Tribunal in line with current employment law. By doing that, any compensation awarded should this go to Tribunal can be upped by an extra 2 to 4 weeks wages.

 

Failure to pay Holiday pay for the last 5 or 6 years will also not go down well. In fact by failing to pay Holiday pay the Agency has made a deduction from wages that's unlawful. Which an Employment Tribunal will not like.

Edited April 8, 2009 by Faustus
mong spelling