Part time holiday/annual leave rights?

LegacyUser

Hello. I'm a little bit confused as to my rights in my current situation, so I'd appreciate some advice from anyone more knowledgeable than me, or who has been in a similar situation. I'm going through the Citizen's Information site but it's all very confusing to me, so I'm sorry if I missed something glaringly obvious.

I'm a college student who works part time at weekends and a few evenings in a shop where I've been for over a year now. In that year I've taken exactly 14.5 hours of holidays (I requested a week off for exams, but was made to work one evening anyway) and I've taken no sick days. I've always come in whenever I've been given a sudden phonecall and done extra hours as needed. I'd consider myself a fairly decent employee. My contracted hours are 15 per week, but really it's 17.5 minimum and sometimes 21.5. I am leaving this job at the end of June and my manager is aware of that.

I requested a weekend and evenings off this June for my final degree exhibition (essentially, one week). I absolutely need to be present at it, there's no way I can miss it. My manager has refused to give it to me. He said he might be able to give me one day, and I would have to work an evening (this is impossible, as we will be spending the days and evenings leading up to the exhibition preparing- it's mandatory). He said this was because I had already taken a weekend off in March (the 14.5 hours- this is the total amount of holidays I have had in over a year) and because I was leaving at the end of June anyway.

Now, obviously my degree is infinitely more important than my part time job, so I don't really care if I have to quit to get that weekend off. I am just annoyed that it has to come to that just to get a weekend off that I am surely entitled to at this stage, and to have to lose out on a month's income. Basically, what I'm confused about are my rights, as a part timer, to holidays/leave, how many hours I should have accumulated in the year I've been working and if I have any grounds to argue my manager's decision.

I appreciate any help. I'm irritated by this.

smiler26

Is it cash in hand or are you taxed?

If it's all above board, your employer should provide 8% of your total hours worked in the year as paid vacation time.

ImDave

Do you know how many hours you have worke in total since commencing employment?

LegacyUser

Everything is above board. I found out over the weekend that the manager had written down our holiday hours in the back of the roster book. I am owed about 70 hours. I don't have an amount for the total hours I've worked in the past year, but 70 hours of holiday works out at about 17 worked hours a week which seems more or less correct, as I think that figure was written down close to the start of this year.

So I have earned a fair amount of holiday time, but the subject has never been mentioned to me until I requested a weekend off last month to study for exams, and now that weekend is being held against me. It's kind of annoying because in my previous job we were given holiday forms and the management was always crystal clear about how many hours we were owed and when they could be taken, all we had to do was fill out the days we wanted and they would be given. Things are far more casual and unorganised in the shop I'm currently in.

I'm tempted just to quit as that means I should get all my holiday hours paid to me, right?

LegacyUser

Feel sorry for you OP, I'm encountering a similar problem myself. I work part-time in retail- I booked next weekend off well in advance (the first I have requested off in months and not even for a paid holiday) and found on our work rota this week that I have been put down to work next weekend, just because other have requested it off (at the same time as me). I don't know how to help but I do feel your pain!

Sephiroth_dude

Hand in your noitice now if you really want to leave,work your noitice and ya he'll have to give you your holiday pay,back pay whatever to you then upon leaving.