Accruing holiday pay

Seve OB

if someone wants to go on a week's holiday (or even 2) in January that is no problem. If they subsequently leave the holidays overpaid are clawed back in last paycheck. I think this is fairly normal practice in every company I've ever heard of.

Can a company use the argument that the holidays haven't yet been accrued and only pay what has been accrued? Seems ludicrous. I can understand maybe for a staff member only in the door who heads off on holidays.

What about a staff member starting in Feb last year wanting a week off in January this year?

Would love to be able to point out some laws on this but I can't find anything

amcalester

Annual leave, even when accrued, is at the discretion of the employer.

Having said that I’d be annoyed if I wasn’t allowed take time off under those circumstances.

368100

Seems like a stupid way of going on for the company. They should be glad of people taking holidays outside peak summer etc as it spreads cover out over the year.

Was this requirement set out in your contract?

See link for more info...it would appear to me that they cannot make you accrue before you can get paid.

https://www.unionconnect.ie/rights/4/

Seve OB

Not for me. Just came up in conversation.

I understand it is at discretion of employer. The employer okayed the holidays.

Just a little upstart running the HR by sounds of it wants to make the employee basically take unpaid leave because they haven't earned the holidays yet! It will go through fine for the employee in question.

Of course maybe they are right in theory but not a clever move from a common sense point of view. Would just love to be able to point the HR numpty in the error of their ways if they are wrong though. The only thing I found was UK based that the accrual method is OK in first year of employment, but that's didn't even say if they couldn't do it again in subsequent years.

CeilingFly

368100 wrote: »

Seems like a stupid way of going on for the company. They should be glad of people taking holidays outside peak summer etc as it spreads cover out over the year.

Was this requirement set out in your contract?

See link for more info...it would appear to me that they cannot make you accrue before you can get paid.

https://www.unionconnect.ie/rights/4/

I don't see that anywhere - if anything, the union accepts that holiday has to be earned before being used by their statement saying its usually calculated monthly.

It would be rare for a company to allow more than a week holiday in advance as trying to defuct from pay is fraught with difficulty.

Two weeks in January for an employee that's only there for a year and has no rollover holiday - no chance.

Tenigate

I don't see why it's so incredulous. Annual leave is accrued and you can't take it if you haven't worked it up. Most larger companies specify this in their policies. Furthermore, the timing of annual leave is largely up to management.

Usually there's a bit of flexibility to take a day or 2 here or there, and some companies will allow you to take even more time before you've accrued it, but it's at their discretion.

What if you want to take a whole week in January? Well either agree with your employer to carry forward annual leave from the previous year (once again, at company discretion), or ask to take a few days which you've not yet accrued. Maybe a combination of both.

Tenigate

Seve OB wrote: »

Just a little upstart running the HR by sounds of it wants to make the employee basically take unpaid leave because they haven't earned the holidays yet!

The fact there's a HR person/dept means there's probably a formal policy in place.

Seve OB

Tenigate wrote: »

The fact there's a HR person/dept means there's probably a formal policy in place.

owners daughter!

small office, line manager and office manager both okayed the holiday.

CeilingFly

Seve OB wrote: »

owners daughter!

small office, line manager and office manager both okayed the holiday.

Line manager and office manager are not directors - and possibly didn't understand that it was paid holiday that had not accrued.

Would be highly unusual for someone to be paid for holiday unearned.

"owners daughter" is 100% correct in her stance.

368100

Tenigate wrote: »

I don't see why it's so incredulous. Annual leave is accrued and you can't take it if you haven't worked it up. Most larger companies specify this in their policies. Furthermore, the timing of annual leave is largely up to management.

Usually there's a bit of flexibility to take a day or 2 here or there, and some companies will allow you to take even more time before you've accrued it, but it's at their discretion.

What if you want to take a whole week in January? Well either agree with your employer to carry forward annual leave from the previous year (once again, at company discretion), or ask to take a few days which you've not yet accrued. Maybe a combination of both.

Ive only worked in four large companies (financial services) and this was/is not an issue to take leave before its accrued. Salary is paid 3 weeks in arrears around 20th of month for that month so if an employee left we can deduct from final salary if needs be