reclaim holiday pay

[brimoo]

hi,

my 1st time and need some help.worked for care home and going to full time education,agreed with them to work on the bank during breaks.when last pay slip they had deducted 516 pound holiday pay not entitled to? have been in discusion with them but say thry will not return.they say they gave me a contract of employment but they have not got a signed copy i have no recollection of them giving me one.

what if any r my options. any help would be good

[james141]

Have you used up your holiday entitlement for the year?

 

If so when you left part way through you in effect owe them those days back if you have used them all up before the end of the year

[brimoo]

yes i had taken 2 wks holiday prior to finishing,my beef is that with no contract of employment (signed) that it constitutes unlawful deductions?

and when working on the bank i would have acrued holidays or enter into an arrangement to pay them back as i worked.

any thoughts?

[Bookworm]

What does "working on the bank" mean?

 

It is not unlawful deductions if you had the holidays (for which they paid you) and haven't worked enough to "earn" the holidays.

 

If you leave, of course they would then deduct the money, how else would they ever see it back?

 

An employer has to give you written terms of employment within 12 weeks of starting, setting hours, salary etc. However, the fact that you were not given written terms does not mean that you didn't have a contract, the verbal terms given when you started would be deemed to form a contract. The danger is of course that it is one word against another in case of dispute.

 

Unlawful deductions are when you are still an employee and that over a certain amount is taken off your wages (there's other aspects, but they're not relevant here). On leaving a company, they are entitled to recover whatever you owe them. Sorry.

[poppynurse]

Working on the bank is like being on a list of staff who will come in and do the odd shift as and when required, normally bank staff are paid hourly and there is an allowance within the hourly rate to cover holiday entitlement.

 

How much holiday were you entiltled to per year?

When did the holiday year start?

How many weeks of the holiday year did you work before you left?

How much holiday have you taken in this holiday year?

 

I've been in the same position and managed to reclaim (albeit a long time ago!)

Holiday pay in the year of leaving is normally pro rata. IE if you are entitled to 20 days holiday per year and you leave after 3 months you are entitled to 5 days paid holiday.

 

If you have no written contract (which I think is illegal) what was verbally agreed?

And are you a union member?

 

How many questions!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brimoo]

not a question that i have had to many holidays but seems unfair they just take it all back with out telling me, found this on acas site,

 

This is taken from the ACAS website:

 

What happens when a worker has taken more leave than their entitlement on termination of employment?

Regulation 14 (4) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 states that an employer and worker can draw up a 'relevant agreement'( for example, in the contract of employment) to provide that a worker will compensate the employer, whether by payment, undertaking additional work or otherwise if leave already taken is in excess of entitlement when employment ends.

 

There should be a 'relevant agreement' in place; if not, and a deduction of overpayment is made by the employer from the worker's final wage payment, the worker may have the right to submit a claim to an employment tribunal under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 - the right not to suffer unauthorized deductions.

Under employment law workers have no legal obligation to repay any money if they have taken more statutory holidays than they would have accrued by the time they leave.

If any money is deducted without consent this would amount to unlawful deduction.

I refer you to the case of Hill v Chapell (2003)

[Bookworm]

the worker may have the right to submit a claim

 

"May" is the operative word here. Without a written contract, as I previously said, it is their word against yours. All they have to do is say they told you this would happen when you started work, and you'd have then an uphill struggle to convince the tribunal they didn't.

 

If I understand you right, you're planning to work on a casual basis for them? IMO, not the wisest move to then antagonise them by starting an ET against them...

[brimoo]

thinkworking on a casual basis has gone out the window now,just want to try to claim any thing back i can?

[Bookworm]

Ok, the question you have to answer yourself is this:

 

Did you in fact get holidays they paid for, but you hadn't earned?

 

If the answer is yes, my advice is forget it. If your only cause of complaint is that they took it all back in one go when you left, you are on very shaky grounds for any kind of action.