Are you giving your staff their legal holiday entitlement?

The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) published data at the end of last week which shows that 1 in 12 workers are not getting their legal holiday entitlement. The data shows that workers are losing out on nearly £3 billion worth of paid leave a year. More female workers are missing out on their entitlement than male and some sectors are more affected than others, including retail, education and health and social care workers.

The TUC has identified a number of key factors which have led to this:

• Workers being set unrealistic workloads which means they are unable to take leave
• Employers denying holiday requests
• Employers not keeping up to date with the law

Employment law dictates that where an employee has been denied the right to paid annual leave, their holiday entitlement carries over indefinitely until a time at which they are given this right.

In addition to developing case law, the Government also plans to crack down in this area. As part of the Government’s response to the Taylor Review, it recommended that HMRC be given enforcement powers similar to those for National Minimum Wage in relation to employees’ holiday entitlement. The Government has consulted on this but has still to announce any plans to take this forward.