Holiday and Holiday Year

Autumn’s here, the nights are drawing in and people are beginning to think of Christmas. To many employers 31 December is the end of their holiday year, which adds to the stress of running the business. Let us look at some potential situations.

Employees who may be short of money still ask their employer to pay them their holiday money and they will work through. This is of course no longer legal under the Working Time Directive, but many employers do pay up and gamble they will not be caught or prosecuted.

Employees may ask for their unused holiday to be carried forward into the next holiday year. It is legal to carry forward any days over four weeks (20 days for a person working a 5 day week) but this is only by agreement, and the employer must be very careful not to set a precedent or be accused of favouring one employee over another – I prefer not to carry forward except in exceptional circumstances.

A recent Tribunal case has made clear that it is legal for an employer to require an employee to take outstanding holiday at a specific time providing the employer gives sufficient notice, eg if you need the employee to take the 3 days between Christmas and New Year then you should give 6 working days notice; to be safe I would suggest no later than 14 December. However this right for employers can be even more beneficial if used carefully. Does your business have any high or low periods between now and the end of the year? If so why not require any outstanding holiday to be taken on the low days? This secures your staff for the days you require them most and maximizes your potential income.

If you need more assistance on this matter do contact me on 01455 613743 for non-clients; if you are a client then call the HR4UK.com advisors on 01455 444222.