Annual Leave -leave taken in excess of accrued time - Ireland - Ireland

5 Annual Leave -leave taken in excess of accrued time

2 Jul, 2024 12:44

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice/reassurance here. An employee has taken annual leave in excess of what they have accrued so far this year. The fact that they didn't have enough time accrued to cover the full leave period doesn't seem to have been communicated to them by their line manager who approved the full period of leave on our system.

For example: the employee has worked up 20 hours AL since their last leave. In the most recent pay period, they have taken 50hours AL but accounts have only paid out the 20 accrued. The employee is insisting that they be paid the remaining 30 hours.

The employee has access to our HR system which shows how much leave they have remaining but the full leave request was approved by the manager who has since left the company.

The employee believes they are entitled to be paid the full amount in advance of accruing it which has thrown me a little bit. It's never been my experience, but am I missing something?

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Tracey | 0 Posts

2 Jul, 2024 13:43

Hi Claire
I guess it depends what is in your annual leave policy and what usually happens. I have only ever worked in one company where you had to accrue the leave before you took it and that was many years ago. All recent companies allow staff to book leave as required. Our leave year runs from April so many people book holidays at Easter (when it falls in April), they may book two weeks off but going by your policy they wouldn't have accrued the leave or get paid for it. I think I would have war on my hands.
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Claire | 0 Posts

3 Jul, 2024 10:46

In reply to Tracey:
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I believe the employee is quite annoyed. I believe the fear is that the employee will leave before they've worked up the difference. This seemingly has happened in the past. For me the issue is that the leave was approved but the fact that the time was in excess of what had been accrued wasn't communicated to them.
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Elizabeth | 0 Posts

3 Jul, 2024 10:49

In reply to Claire:
We give people an allowance when they start and they can take it when they like and be paid for it. However, we do have a clause in the contract that if they leave the company and have taken more leave than they have accrued we can make a deduction from their final salary.
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Sophie | 0 Posts

3 Jul, 2024 13:31

In reply to Claire:
Are you able to deduct money from leavers where they have taken too much leave? I think it is quite unusual now to have to work to accrue leave before taking it - I'm not even sure how that would work because you won't have accrued your full year's leave until you have worked a full year, which means you can't possibly take your annual leave entitlement within the same year as accruing it - unless everyone in your organisation always has the last day of the holiday year off?
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Claire | 0 Posts

3 Jul, 2024 14:27

In reply to Sophie:

Hi Sophie, we actually do close for a set period over Christmas so they actually do have some days off right at the end of the year which I know is quite unusual.
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