Does anyone know if there’s anyway of getting an agency to pay your holiday money when you are no longer working for them? I worked through an agency for a place for 3 months, then I was taken on and they said they would pay me the holiday money I was owed “When they knew I was permanent at this place”. That was 3 months ago and they still havn’t paid anything. Any ideas what I can do? Thanks.
Go to the union.
Small claims court but you’ll need to lodge official grievance with agency first.
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I fell victim to an agency scam some years ago.
They took me on the books, and what I didn’t know at the time, was, that any days they didn’t work me, (Before any permanent placement) they counted as holidays. When I left, at the time, I thought they owed me some money until they pointed out what had happened. Apparently it was in the contract, but being young and naive, I didn’t check.
If your new perm employer still use the ex-agency, and if your mangers are approachable, a word with them might have some result? A little informal leaning and nudging?
If possible that is cheaper and quicker than using any legal route.
Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate
I was owed a weeks holiday pay which they were ‘sorting out for me’, only they went bust before paying me, surprise!
Found the name and number of the Reciever, gave him a call and he told me anyone owed pay including holiday was a priority creditor, sure enough that weeks pay turned up in due course.
So don’t worry, even if the same should happen before you get the money from these bods, you’ll be in the same boat i was.
Lesson learned for the next agency, still on tacho discs then (which they needed in order to bill the client) and i wouldn’t supply them until they paid up what i was owed.
JeffA:
Does anyone know if there’s anyway of getting an agency to pay your holiday money when you are no longer working for them? I worked through an agency for a place for 3 months, then I was taken on and they said they would pay me the holiday money I was owed “When they knew I was permanent at this place”. That was 3 months ago and they still havn’t paid anything. Any ideas what I can do? Thanks.
Calculate what you’re owed, send them an invoice. When they don’t pay send them a reminder by recorded delivery. When they don’t pay send them a statement of account by recorded delivery telling them that if they don’t pay within 7 days by cleared payment you will take them to court. When they continue not to pay you file a claim online at: gov.uk/make-court-claim-for … make-claim
And when you put in the claim you also claim the costs (recorded delivery and court fees) plus late payment interest at the statutory rate of 8% plus the Bank of England Base rate which is currently 5.25% so you add 13.25% to the amount owed.
gov.uk/late-commercial-paym … rcial-debt
It’ll cost you £35 up to £300, £50 for £300.01-£500, £70 for £500.01 to £1000. You may or may not get it but the company will get a CCJ awarded against them if they still don’t pay which you can send bailiffs in to collect.
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Walk into the office. grab a laptop or other portable expensive office device, throw down a note saying “goods taken in lieu of payment” and watch their faces.
THey will obviously question what you are doing whereby you tell them that unless they pay you what you are owed then the laptop will be going with you until they pay.
It would be an ‘unlawful deduction from wages’ claim in the Employment Tribunal.
The limit is 3 months, but the clock stops for up to six weeks or something after you submit your Early Conciliation request to ACAS.
If the P45 hasn’t been issued effectively you are still employed so you should be okay, but don’t delay.
I should also say, that it is unlikely ever to get to the Employment Tribunal because if they owe you holiday pay they would have to pay for someone to turn up to fight a losing battle.
Agency holiday pay is a lot of money so don’t lose it.
Many agency workers don’t even know they have it.
The mechanism seems intentionally difficult to understand and hard to find and it won’t be mentioned by them because they like to keep it.
There is usually a clause hidden in the fine print of the contract with a deadline. Best thing to do, is to keep sending weekly emails requesting holiday. If you are owed holiday retrospectively and have missed deadlines:
Read this regarding use it or lose it policies, it might help.
I prefer the idea of no quarter given regarding time off on agency none expected.
Any/all agency jobs offered to me are always preceded by them asking me if I’m available.
Not the need for me to ‘request’ time off.Although I like to give them advanced notice where possible.
The same applies to duties.
Holiday pay on agency just creates the similar downsides of then being obligated to an employer in terms of taking time out.Bearing in mind it’s also regarded as taxable income.
On that basis I actually don’t agree with holiday pay on agency work and don’t really want or need it.I prefer the independence of time off meaning my time not their’s.
There are two ways agencies pay holiday, some include an uplift to the hourly rate and some keep it seperate via an accrual method.
The reason some agencies keep it seperate, is that many employees don’t know they have it or forget to take it, then the agency gets to keep the money unless challenged.
When you take a job you are offered a package including hourly pay, holiday pay, pension and any other benefits.
Whether it should all be included in the rate is a matter for debate and is not necessarily straight forward.
For example, if holiday is not kept seperate, then there may be drivers who work all year round, 52 weeks x 5 days a week and never take a holiday. This could lead to burn out and inadvertent unsafe working.
I think the reason there is a legal requirement for pension is that it means less workers will be elligable for pension credits when they retire and even though you can opt out, most probably won’t as it’s seen as free money even though it’s not accessible in the short term.
Agencies may have found loop holes and subversive practices but before agency workers were granted rights like holiday pay and pension contributions, their working conditions were typically more precarious, with very limited legal protections and even greater potential for exploitation.
Holiday pay is equivalent to at least 12.07% of your pay, more if you end up long term at a place and they give their employees more than the statutory 28 days due to the changes in the Agency Worker Regulations that gave agency workers parity pay and annual leave with permanent staff after 12 weeks at a company…
By not taking your holiday pay you’re entitled to you’re in effect giving yourself a 12.07% pay cut.
And why shouldn’t agency be entitled to holiday pay? Long gone are the days where your basic rate of pay on agency is equivalent to the overtime rate of the place you get sent to.
It is a legal requirement under the working time directive to be paid holiday pay and an employer has a duty to actually force you to take a minimum 20 days pro-rata. If they’re not doing that then they’re breaking the law.