UK Vacation Carryover Policies [closed]

Question

Have any UK employers limited the amount of vacation day carryover for any individual employee? Right now we have no limit but are considering putting in a limit.

Answer 1

Employees are required to take a minimum of 4 weeks (20 days for a 5-day work week) of paid vacation per year in order to be eligible to carry over. Days over 20 can be carried over depending on the contract with the employer. These are the general rules, and as always, any specific details regarding implementation should be discussed with legal counsel.

The UK Gov't Website gives the following restrictions:

Carrying over leave

The worker’s contract says how many days’ leave they can carry over into the next year.

If a worker gets 28 days’ leave, they can carry over up to a maximum of 8 days.

If a worker gets more than 28 days’ leave, their employer may allow them to carry over any additional untaken leave. Check the employment contract, company handbook or intranet site to see what the rules say.

If a worker can’t take all of their leave entitlement because they’re already on a different type of leave (eg sick, maternity or parental leave), they can carry over some or all of the untaken leave into the next leave year.

An employer must allow a worker to carry over a maximum of 20 of their 28 days’ leave entitlement if the worker couldn’t take annual leave because they were off sick.

This isn't so clear on the actual rules, so this PDF from ACAS contains some additional information:

From 1 October 2007 any holiday entitlement over four weeks (20 days for a five-day week, 16 days for a four-day week etc) may with agreement be carried over into the following leave year. This is a complex area and you may wish to seek independent legal advice.

There is additional guidance on nidirect.gov:

You do not have a right to carry leave over, but if you don't take all of your statutory holiday entitlement during your holiday year, your employer may allow you to carry over the leftover days to the next holiday year. You must take at least four weeks’ holiday a year, so only holiday on top of this (including the new extra days) can be carried over and then only if your employer gives you permission or if this is permitted by your contract of employment.