Getting holidays robbed from me

Mr Burns

Hi Folks

I work in an company, call centre type industry. I am with the company 2 years and in my present position 1 year.

When I joined the company I was advised that holidays are 21 days for the first year rising to 23 after the first year. Thats ok. I was working a 8hr day 5 days a week in my original position. Therefore I got 21/23 days off a year, all is fine.

I moved position 1 year ago to a night position, now 4x10 hour days. I was advised that I would be receiving 23 days holidays a year, ie 23x10 hrs. this was never in writing but all other nightshift persons in my dept were getting this for years but it was never in writing. From the 1st of Jan this year without warning they are calculating my holidays on the basis of hrs and not days. They now say Iam getting 23x8 hrs and each day I take is -10 hrs from my holidays.

Can they do this without warning? Am I entitled to to the prevoius position of 23 10hrs days by precedent, ie I was getting them before and all previous incumbants had the same?

Thanks for your opinions in advance.

AARRRGH

It really will go by what your contract says.

Do you have a contract?

Their 23 x 8 sounds fair, considering you only work 4 days per week. Taking 23 x 10 hours would means you could take nearly 6 weeks off work! That's a long time...

Carb

To take a week off work, you'll still only use up the same amount of hoildays as when you were working 8 hr days. Remember, if you want to argue that it should be based on days, they could say ok, but you only work 4 days now, so you are entitled to 4/5 of 23 x 10hrs, which is the same thing.

Mr Burns

Thanks Lads for your input.

The contract clearly states 23 days. No mention of hours. I was receiving this till the 1st of Jan and others did as well.

Also I work Mon-Thurs, regardless of BH's etc and we never get the BH off. The extra hols were/are considered compensation for loss of the BH. But surely they need to give me a reason notice period before changing things?

Tom Dunne

Mr Burns wrote:

The contract clearly states 23 days. No mention of hours.

I worked in a place where the shifts were 12 hours. In the contract, it also mentioned 25 days paid holidays. But it was also quite clear that 25 days = 25 8 hour days.

There should be definitions at the top (or bottom) of the contract that should, in theory, clarify what a working day is.

Either way, a change in working conditions should be properly communicated to all employees.

juddd

When companies talk about holidays they are talking about 8 hours, if you work 12 hour shifts(or 10) and get 21 days holidays that will be equal to about 14 shift days a year.

TheBigLebowski

That's right, when they say 1 day, they refer to an 8 hour day, or even a 7.8 hour day if you work a 39 hour week (as it is in my place where you are given a yearly allowance of hours off rather than days)...I think you're just trying to chance your arm and you should be grateful that you ever got away with it.

seamus

1 holiday day = 1/5 of your hours in a normal working week. In this case, 8 hours.

Many places do holidays on an hourly basis instead of a daily basis. If you think about it logically, if 10 hours for you = one holiday day, then you would get 4.6 days more holidays per year than a guys whose holiday days = 8 hours. That is, if your holiday days are worth 2 hours more than the guy next to you, then you would be getting 46 more hours off per year.

Mr Burns

seamus wrote:

1 holiday day = 1/5 of your hours in a normal working week. In this case, 8 hours.

Many places do holidays on an hourly basis instead of a daily basis. If you think about it logically, if 10 hours for you = one holiday day, then you would get 4.6 days more holidays per year than a guys whose holiday days = 8 hours. That is, if your holiday days are worth 2 hours more than the guy next to you, then you would be getting 46 more hours off per year.

Ok, I see what yee are saying, but these changes were introduced without notice to me. Also the fact is myself and the previous incumbants received the higher amount for years. Surely notice of such a change is required?

Also as I work monday to Thursday regardless of whether or not a bank holiday falls, the "extra leave" was considered compensation for the loss of enjoyment of the bank holidays. Does that not seem fair?

juddd

If your shift falls on a bank holiday you will still get your double time and if your shift starts on a tuesday and it's a bank holiday on the monday you will still be entitled to an extra 8 hours pay.
You can also come to an arrangement where you can either get the overtime or take it as holidays, but you can't have it both ways, otherwise the country would come to a standstill.

From the 1st of Jan this year without warning they are calculating my holidays on the basis of hrs and not days. They now say Iam getting 23x8 hrs and each day I take is -10 hrs from my holidays.

you have obviously been informed that your holidays are 8 hour days, when you take 4 10 hour days off you will actually be taking the whole week off, if you were working 5 days a week you would have to take off the five days both scenarios equals to 40 hours off. 8x5=40 10x4=40 so NO you are not being ripped off.

Mr Burns

The point everyone is missing or delibertly avoiding is that the change has been brought in without notice and the situation has existed for years without problem. I only found out from a collegue by accident.

I don't have a problem with the change so long as adequate notice was given and I get back the bank holidays.

TheBigLebowski

I would say that they probably didn't really realise what was going on. The point is you were never entitled to those extra holidays. Just be thankful they don't decide to take all them days from your current holiday balance. They are just rectifying the situation rather than making any changes.