Hi all,

I recently left my work and today received a letter stating I owed them 20 hours holiday and they will be taking this out of my final pay on 16 December. I definitely owe them a couple of hours but not 20.

I got 29 days in total over the year which runs from 1 January - 31 December. When I left I also had 1 day left to take. Now let's say for arguments sake each month has 31 days in it. 29 divided by 12 is 2.41, so that's 2.41 days accrued each month (each day being 8 hours). 2.41 divided by 31 is 0.07, so you earn 0.07 days of holiday each day of the year.

I worked up until the 9th December so 0.07 x 9 is 0.63. Take this away from the holiday I would earn in December which leaves 1.78 and minus the day I did not take is 0.78. So I should only owe them 0.78 days of holiday.

So they're going to take £160 when I only owe about £45, might not seem a lot but my next payday won't be until end of January because of the new job so it's really annoying.

Just need some of advice on what to do, I don't think it's fair but where can I go if they take the extra amount? Sorry if this is confusing haha

Hi Matty

First of all holiday accrual is usually calculated on the basis of working days, not calendar days, so your figures might be slightly out but not by much.

I tend to say this quite often on this forum - but HR do often make mistakes and the best thing to do in these situations is just tell them. Someone has probably just messed up the calculation, or maybe has incorrect figures for how much leave you have.

Unfortunately these things tend to take a while to process and it's unlikely it will get fixed before the December payroll - but with any luck you should get a cheque in the post (or a bank transfer) for the difference.

I would think the first step would be to Talk to HR and confirm the figures with them. Maybe their records are wrong or their calculations. Then go from there depending what they say.

You said you get 29 days holiday. Is that 29 PLUS 8 Bank Holidays or 29 INCLUDING 8 Bank Holidays.?

At this time of the morning I don't have my calculator at hand to work it out for you, but in the absence of that, good advice to see your HR and chat it through, The important thing to remember though, is that unless there is provision in your signed contract of employment, they are not allowed to deduct anything from your salary bar the usual deduction of NI or PAYE.

no one on here will know the company policy and holiday rules but HR should so speak to them and ask them to explain things clearly to you, and see if it's right or wrong, and if it's wrong then they should be able to fix it

Tell us what date exactly you left, what your total holiday entitlement is including bank holidays and how many days you had left and we should be able to figure it out.

Your contract would also need to say that they can deduct the holiday owed otherwise it is an illegal deduction.

We would also probably need to know how many hours constitutes a "day" at his place of work, too.