Holiday entitlement

[matchmaker]

A question has come up in relation to my part time job. As well as my full time job, I work 1 day a week in another job. I have worked there for over 18 months. According to the legislation I am therefore entitled to a minimum of 5.6 days paid holiday per year. The leave year runs from January to December.

I applied today for a day off and was told by e-mail "that nobody will be due any holidays at XXX until end of March, so sorry, no holidays can be taken til then".(Not my speeling!)

My response was "I cannot understand why this should be the case – the statutory minimum allowance is 5.6 days and as far as I understand from the Working Time Regulations we are entitled to this as from the start of the leave year – which I assume is 1st January, although we have never seen a contract to confirm this!"

In response to this I was told to phone the MD, which I haven't done - yet! You'll also see that I have never received a written contract.

So how am I placed? Can a company do this?

Oh, and it's not due to an excess of work that I can't get a day off. It is quiet at work and I suspect they just don't want to pay me my minimum wage pittance...........

Edited by matchmaker on Friday 27th January 19:46

[deeen]

Well in general, yes, the employer can require staff to take leave at a time convenient to the company.

However they would be in a stronger position if this was clearly stated in your written contract.

Also they should not discriminate against you because you are part time - does anyone else have leave in that period? If it's first come first served, were you given the same opportunity to book your dates as everybody else?

On the other hand, do you really need to argue about it? Or can you gain some brownie points here (E.g. "I know I should get these days off, when is a good time?" Then... "OK that's fine for 4 of them, I would like to take the other one on XX date to match my holiday from the other company please"