Change in holiday period - losing out?
Change in holiday period - losing out?
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Discussion

boyse7en

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

188 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
My workplace is changing the holiday year start and end dates from 1st Jan - 31 Dec to 1 Apr - 31 Mar, which probably makes sense to them was it runs with their financial year.

What me and my colleagues can't get our heads around is whether we have lost holiday entitlement by this change, or indeed gained some.

We get 20 days a year, and I took no time off between Jan - Apr this year, whereas my colleague took four days off in that period. So have i lost a weeks holiday?

randlemarcus

13,646 posts

254 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
Retrospective? You might have lost the opportunity to have some leave that didn't count, but you ought not to have lost actual leave.

boyse7en

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

188 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
randlemarcus said:
Retrospective? You might have lost the opportunity to have some leave that didn't count, but you ought not to have lost actual leave.
Not sure what you mean, but they told us this week that the number of days holiday for this year will now be counted from 1 Apr 2019 to to 31 Mar 2020.
I had taken no holiday in Jan-Mar 2019 and so I have 20 days until Mar 2020
My colleague had taken four days in Jan-Mar 2019 and also has 20 days until Mar 2020

Shakermaker

11,317 posts

123 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
They've done this at work several times in the years I've been here.

In this "changeover" period, you still ought to have accrued holiday in the first three months of this year, and so for the full period of 1st Jan 2019-31st March 2020 you should get "one and a quarter" year's leave allowance - 25 days total. Or the paid equivalent of those 5 days.


Mr Pointy

12,828 posts

182 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
I'd say this year your holiday year is 1st Jan 2019 to 31st March 2020 so you are due 25 days. Otherwise you've lost out by 25% of your entitlement.

parabolica

6,958 posts

207 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
Very odd that they would apply this to the existing holiday year; it would have made more sense to give everyone an extra 3 months entitlement to cover Jan - Mar 2020 on top of the 2019 allowance ans start the new holiday year in April 2020 with a full entitlement for the next year.

You need clarification from your HR or management about how used or unused holidays for the period Jan - Mar 2019 are being accounted for.

abzmike

11,361 posts

129 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
HR need to show thier working... Days accrued at a monthly rate, versus days taken and entitled. Rounding up should be in your favour.

boyse7en

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

188 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
It's a small company (9 employees) so there is no HR dept. Its one of the director's idea as i assume it makes it easier for the accounts or something to have it inline with the company's financial year.

CzechItOut

2,156 posts

214 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
Mr Pointy said:
I'd say this year your holiday year is 1st Jan 2019 to 31st March 2020 so you are due 25 days. Otherwise you've lost out by 25% of your entitlement.
I've done holiday calendar changes at a couple of companies and this is exactly how it works.

OP - you should now have 25 days to take before 31st March, whereas your mate will only have 21.

Little Pete

1,834 posts

117 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
quotequote all
Mr Pointy said:
I'd say this year your holiday year is 1st Jan 2019 to 31st March 2020 so you are due 25 days. Otherwise you've lost out by 25% of your entitlement.
This is how we did it a couple of years ago but we went from Jan to Dec to March to Feb to avoid the possibility of having two Easter breaks in the same financial/holiday year.

Rude-boy

22,227 posts

256 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
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We changed a few years ago so that all new employees have their leave year run with their DOB. Everyone else was moved to a 1/3 to 28/2 leave year to avoid the usual "no one in the office in November and December as all using up their leave."


Johnnytheboy

24,499 posts

209 months

Wednesday 24th July 2019
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April to March is a brilliant leave year for working out people's entitlement.

If - like most firms - you take your bank holidays out of your entitlement, you can have between 0 and 4 easter bank holidays to take in any one leave year.

Flooble

5,738 posts

123 months

Thursday 25th July 2019
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In a company of 9 people I struggle to see why they had to change anything - managing the leave should be simple and I don't see that it has any bearing on the accounts of finance calculations, assuming you are all salaried and thus earn exactly the same each month regardless.

It actually concerns me that the director (how many directors does a 9 person company need?) doesn't have enough to occupy him or her ...

ralphrj

3,944 posts

214 months

Sunday 28th July 2019
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There may be an impact on the accounts as the cost of holiday accrued but not taken should be recorded in the accounts.

Moving the holiday year to finish on the same date as the accounting year together with a policy stating that no unused holiday can be carried over will remove this obligation.

Flooble

5,738 posts

123 months

Sunday 28th July 2019
quotequote all
ralphrj said:
There may be an impact on the accounts as the cost of holiday accrued but not taken should be recorded in the accounts.

Moving the holiday year to finish on the same date as the accounting year together with a policy stating that no unused holiday can be carried over will remove this obligation.
Thanks! I had never encountered that before - our accountants never asked, I guess it was such a small amount they didn't considere it material. Or they were lazy. Good to know there might be a valid reason