I started a new job in December for a company that works in the UK Higher Education sector.
I was told I'd get 20 days annual leave plus bank holidays and closure days (another 14) giving me 34... Amazing!
Because I started 70 days into the new holiday entitlement period, HR have reduced my entitlement using a multiplier 70/365 = 0.19 and they have used this to reduce my combined entitlement to 27.5.
After this they've taken the 14 days for closure and bank holidays, leaving me with 13.5 days to take.
I have raised a query on this because:
I wouldn't have accrued 6.5 days holiday in 70 days - so how can I have lost that much?
If they'd taken off the 14 days first and then reduced my entitlement using the same multiplier I'd have only lost 3.8 days not 6.5.
In combining the entitlement, reducing it and then taking off the closure days I'm losing more than 14 days - it's more like 16.6
This method not only reduces my holiday entitlement by 19%, it also reduces all my bank holidays too.
(I understand some of this is the same point made in different ways!)
I can understand the shutdowns, but I've never worked anywhere that took bank holidays off you for starting later in the year. They aren't accrued by length of service so how can they be reduced in this way?
I've had a look at UK law and it says that a company can include bank holidays as part of your entitlement, but it isn't clear if they can take them away from you using a method like this.
A few of my colleagues have told me to query this because it doesn't seem right, but I'm getting no-where.
Do I have an argument to push this further, or should I leave it?
I'm still on probation and don't want to upset anyone.