Can an employee carry holiday over from one year to another?
If you give the minimum holiday entitlement – 28 days (which may or may not include bank holidays, depending upon your industry) – employees are normally expected to use all of their holiday in the current holiday year.
If they don’t use all of their 28 days of holiday entitlement within the current holiday year, they would normally lose whatever they haven’t taken.
What are the exceptions?
Yes. There are some instances where holiday can be carried forward, even though they only have 28 days.
For example, if your company operates a ‘relevant agreement’ stating that some holiday can be carried over to the next year, then employees can carry that amount forward.
A ‘relevant agreement’ can be any of the following:
- A Collective Agreement, which is an agreement which is made between an employer and a recognised trade union.
- A Workforce Agreement, which is an agreement which has been made between the employer and worker representatives.
- It is stated in the contract of employment that some of the 28 days can be carried forward – this would normally only be a maximum of 8 days.
Are there any other reasons when holiday can be carried forward?
Yes. Holiday can be carried forward if your employee is unable to take all of their holiday in the current year due to long-term sickness, maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave.
Long-term Sickness
If your employee is on long-term sickness (classed as four weeks or more), then a maximum of four weeks may be carried forward. This must be taken with 18 months from the end of the holiday year in which it was accrued.
Maternity, Adoption or Shared Parental Leave
If your employee is going on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, they must be allowed to carry forward holiday into the next holiday year if it cannot be taken in the current holiday year.
Normally, when your employee informs you that they wish to take maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, you would agree with them that some or all of their holiday entitlement should be taken before they go on such leave, depending upon how close it is to the end of the current holiday year. If there isn’t enough time left in the holiday year for them to take their accrued leave, then it would be carried over to the following holiday year, to be taken either before they return to work or have it added to their leave for that year.
There are two other reasons where up to four weeks of holiday could be carried forward. These are where you do not let your employee take all of their holiday or you do not encourage them to take it, and secondly, if you do not inform your employee that they will lose their holiday if they do not take it.
This second reason should never happen as we state in our contracts of employment/principal statements that holiday will be lost if it isn’t taken. If for some reason you don’t have this clause in your contract/contract/principal statement, then please let the policy team know and your documents will be amended accordingly. The Policy Team email address is: policy.team@moorepay.co.uk
What if we give more than the minimum holiday?
Your contracts of employment/principal statements will show how much holiday you give your employees. It should also state whether any of the enhanced holiday entitlement can be carried forward. Normally this is a maximum of 5 days into the next holiday year, but some employers do allow more if their holiday entitlement is a fair bit higher than the 28 days.
What about employees who work irregular hours or only work part-year eg. term-time?
The minimum holiday entitlement for irregular hours or part-year employees is 5.6 working weeks (28 days), the same as other employees.
They can carry over up to 28 days if they have accrued it but have been unable to take it due to being on long-term sick, they’re on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, you have not allowed them to take their full holiday entitlement or there is a relevant agreement in place.
