Student summer work and holidays

jc2008

I was lucky enough to get a summer job in a small firm for my summer holidays from college.

I haven't received an official contract, however, the company is very small and doesn't really have a HR department or anything, so I didn't worry too much about this. Anyway, verbally it is agreed that I'll be working up until the start of September, which will be a total of 17 weeks work.

I know I'll be entitled to some paid holiday leave, even if it is only part-time. How do I work out how many days I'll be entitled to have? It's 8 hours for every 100 hours worked, right?

Do I include the time I expect to be on holidays in the calculation? Common sense would say no, but then I'll have to take the amount of holiday days off 17x5= 85 days to calculate this, but I don't know how many holiday days I will take to work this out! Also, there'll be two bank holidays so I'm guessing they have to be subtracted.

Is it considered a bit cheeky to wait until the end of the summer, and then take my holidays? In other words, finish early? It probably won't be an issue, but it'd seem a bit cheeky to say "Thanks for the opportunity, I'm finished now but you'll still be paying me for next week, and by the way can I have a reference please?"

Nody

Expect no holidays and that you'll be paid 8% additional for the holidays instead; more likely scenario (note the 8% may or may not have been included in what ever salary they offered you).

jc2008

Oh I didn't know they could do the 8% thing that is interesting!

Would it indicate on my payslip if I was being paid for holidays, or would it simply be lumped into the 'Gross Pay' figure - I get paid monthly, and have only received one payslip so far, which included emergency tax deductions so I'm not able to determine exactly where the Gross Pay figure is coming from, only that it's in-or-around my expectations, and thus it isn't obvious if I am being charged the 8% or not!

Nody

It all depends on how detailed the payroll system is; first check out your contract what it states. If it is not listed then I'd simply ask the local payroll manager how the holiday is going to handled and see what they say.

jc2008

Thanks again!

I mentioned it in the first post, I haven't received a contract! Also payrolls are outsourced to an external company, but I'll mention it to somebody in my company!