Redundancy and holiday allocation

[miniandy]

Hello,

I was made redundant the other week and on having my exit interview (before you are escorted from the building) I was told that I owed 52.5 hours of holiday and they would just deduct this from my final payout. However I dispute the amount, but there is no appeal process in place, so I am basically ed.

Back in November I booked 2 weeks' holiday for 25th January to 8th February. On the 24th of January I found out that I would be part of a mass redundancy, but as yet they did not know who or when or any terms, but that my team were 'at risk' and wouldn't exist as of the 18th April.

I took my holiday and came back to work. About a week later it was announced that we would only be getting 8 days holiday allocation (pro rata) for the period January - 18th April. Now I was told that I couldn't take any more holidays as I had used my allocation, but I was not told that I had gone over. They did say however that if (from the point they announced it) I were to take holidays then they would deduct these from my final pay, which is fair enough.

Now I didn't take any further holidays as I did not want to have them taken from my final pay, but they are now saying I owe them. My argument is that I booked and took my holidays before they imposed the 8 day term, and so I should not owe them anything.

Please help. It's looking like I owe them nearly a grand. Ouch.

[Don]

What you can do depends on whether the 8 day vacation allowance was the correct amount pro-rata your annual allowance as per your contract. If they're breaking the contract you can legitimately complain and go to tribunal about it. If it's as per your employment contract then they're correct and you are unlikely to make any headway.

Check your contract: is the 8 days correct?

[justinp1]

Don said:

What you can do depends on whether the 8 day vacation allowance was the correct amount pro-rata your annual allowance as per your contract. If they're breaking the contract you can legitimately complain and go to tribunal about it. If it's as per your employment contract then they're correct and you are unlikely to make any headway.

Check your contract: is the 8 days correct?

Agreed.

Sadly, I think that if their calculation is correct, then they are right in that additional holiday taken over the pro-rata calculation can be recouped.

Most employment contracts cover this eventuality, and although it is not usually applied to redundancies, it covers situations where an employee resigns after taking almost all of their allowance and not completing the holiday year.

Its a bit stingy to apply it to a redundancy in this case.

[bga]

What does it say in your compromise agreement regarding pay owed?

[simpo two]

I wonder if there are any legal precedents you could use to make a case? Some years back when a neighbour left a fairly high-level sales job at BT, they tried to withold his bonus. He dug his heels in and eventually got it. Not the same thing I know, but just a thought.