is she entitled to holiday pay?

moretothegirl

hey guys just wondering .... my sister is workin part time and needs to leav her job. shes been there for a year and a half and last year at christmas received all her holiday pay that she had earned. the problem is her employer does not willingly give ppl their holiday pay, unless they ask for it. she asked for hers last year so got it, but other employees who were unaware (its mostly teenagers working there) that they were owed this never received theres.
shes wondering now since she is leaving her job in about a week, is she entitled to get any holiday pay shes worked up since january? she doesnt want to ask her employer unless shes certain she is entitled as she is trying to leave on a good note so she can get a good reference in the future, but at the same time, if shes entitled to something she should get it.

anyone no her rights?

leeroybrown

An employee leaving employment is entitled to be paid for any accrued annual leave. It's normally standard practice to automatically include it in the last pay packet after the employee finishes.

On a related note, it's illegal for an employer to give pay in lieu of statutory annual leave to an employee who is not leaving employment. Her employer shouldn't actually have given her the cash last Christmas.

jimmycrackcorm

Useful source of information here:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/employment/types-of-employment/part-time-employment/employment_rights_of_part_time_workers

moretothegirl

leeroybrown wrote: »

An employee leaving employment is entitled to be paid for any accrued annual leave. It's normally standard practice to automatically include it in the last pay packet after the employee finishes.

On a related note, it's illegal for an employer to give pay in lieu of statutory annual leave to an employee who is not leaving employment. Her employer shouldn't actually have given her the cash last Christmas.

sorry to sound stupid but how is this?

i know lots of people who get holiday pay instead of getting the time off. for example one person who works for tesco always gets her holiday pay coming up to christmas, and they are known for doing everything by the book and proper.

leeroybrown

Is it possible that they have holiday entitlements in excess of their minimum statutory entitlement? If so their employer would legally be able to reimburse them for this. They could possibly have built up 'time in lieu' for working extra hours.

Wishbone Ash

moretothegirl wrote: »

i know lots of people who get holiday pay instead of getting the time off

Are you sure you are correct? As leeroy says, it's illegal unless in very exceptional circumstances such as a sudden departure or the sudden death of an employee (in which case the payment is usually made to next of kin etc.).

Xiney

Actually, part time workers generally get holiday pay rather than statutory leave. It's not illegal.

Johnmb

Xiney wrote: »

Actually, part time workers generally get holiday pay rather than statutory leave. It's not illegal.

No, it is illegal. I have checked this with the tax office in the past as we have a lot of students working for us and they often just leave without telling us, so we have no opportunity to pay them their holiday money. According to the tax office, the relevant acts make no allowance for this, we cannot pay them in lieu of holidays unless they are leaving.

In answer to the original question, yes your sister is entitled to holiday pay when she leaves (assuming she hasn't actually taken any paid leave!). There are 3 ways to work it out, but she should try to get 8% as that works out the highest (again, assuming she is on the minimum entitlements, her employer isn't giving her anything extra).

leeroybrown

Xiney wrote: »

Actually, part time workers generally get holiday pay rather than statutory leave. It's not illegal.

I've never encountered any exception that would allow them to do this legally. The post by 'Johnmb' above confirms this. I think it's just a case of it not being checked/enforced due to most part-time employees being more than happy to accept the cash.

moretothegirl

im actually completely in shock about this.... i never at all knew that this was illegal... im wondering if i am somehow misunderstanding this... are you all saying that if someone has a part time job working weeknds and holiday time like summer holidays etc but never take any paid holiday days off, are you saying that they cannot just take the money at the end of the year instead?

sorry if i sound stupid its just that i know so many people locally that do this and i never knew it was not allowed!!

leeroybrown

The intent of the legislation is mainly to protect workers from working on a long term basis without leave. I'd guess that what a lot of these companies are doing is marking employees as on leave for days that they'd not have worked anyway in order to pay them. A quasi-legal technicality.

I certainly wouldn't blame any employer for doing a part-time worker a favour by just giving them flexible hours and cash for their holidays.

jimmycrackcorm

moretothegirl wrote: »

im actually completely in shock about this.... i never at all knew that this was illegal... im wondering if i am somehow misunderstanding this... are you all saying that if someone has a part time job working weeknds and holiday time like summer holidays etc but never take any paid holiday days off, are you saying that they cannot just take the money at the end of the year instead?

sorry if i sound stupid its just that i know so many people locally that do this and i never knew it was not allowed!!

Some of the confusion arises from statutory leave being obligatory. i.e an employer cannot pay in lieu for statutory leave but can for any holiday eriod in excess of this.

moretothegirl

ok i think i understand now. thanks everyone for all your help, cannot believe i didnt no that before. my sisters boss must definitely not know this either then because he refuses to give any entitlements unless he is asked about them, such as double/time and a half on bank holidays etc etc so the fact he gave her holiday pay last christmas when she asked for it suggests he must think shes legally entitled!!

wmpdd3

moretothegirl wrote: »

sorry to sound stupid but how is this?

i know lots of people who get holiday pay instead of getting the time off. for example one person who works for tesco always gets her holiday pay coming up to christmas, and they are known for doing everything by the book and proper.

You have to take your holidays in Tesco, the friend could be getting their Christmas Bonas instead.

In another company I worked for I could let a person work their part time hours in a week ie Monday Tuesday Wednesday and pay them holiday money for Thursday and Friday but I had to fax a declaration to Payroll signed by the employee to say they elected to do this. So the person would have 12 hours pay and 12hours holiday pay in that week, this would reduce their entitlement by 1 week for that year.

Cleopatra12

You are entitled to 1.66 days per month worked annual leave (full time work)or 8% of total days actually worked(usually for part time workers). Lots of temporary staff and part timr workers do not take annual leave, but when they leave thier employment thier accured annual leave is paid to them by means of Cessor pay.

EG if you worked 40 days you over say 4 months as a part-time worker you are entitled to 3.2 days annual leave. 40, x0.08= 3.2 days annual leave