Part-time worker reclaims £240 holiday pay after realising she was missing out – how to check if you're owed too

Step 1: Find out if you're entitled to any paid holiday

Technically, whether you have the right to paid holiday depends on your status under employment law. Not everyone with a job is officially classed as an employee or worker.

One easy test is to ask: do you get payslips? These can be paper or electronic and list your earnings, hours worked (if you're paid hourly) and any deductions such as Income Tax and National Insurance.

• If you get payslips, you're likely entitled to holiday pay as an 'employee' or 'worker'. This is the case whether you work full-time, part-time or on a zero-hours contract. And it doesn't matter if your job is temporary or for only part of the year.

• If you don't get payslips, you may not be entitled to holiday pay. This could be because you're self-employed (in other words, you are your own boss), or because you’ve agreed to an informal 'cash in hand' working arrangement, meaning your employer has not officially registered your employment to the Government.

• To be sure, check your contract (if you have one) or ask your employer. They should be able to tell you. Or, for more help with working out your employment status, see independent employment advice service Acas's website.

Step 2: Check how much paid holiday you're entitled to

There isn't one set figure for everyone – it depends how many days or hours you work and how generous your employer is. This means it can be complex to work out, but here's how it works in a nutshell:

• The starting point: employees and workers are legally entitled to 5.6 working weeks of paid holiday a year. The number of days this equates to depends on how many days or hours you work, as set out in the examples below. Your employer can choose to give you more than this, but they don't have to (5.6 weeks is the minimum required under what's known as 'statutory annual leave').

• A full-time, year-round employee working five days a week is therefore entitled to 28 days of paid holiday a year (5.6x5). Employers are allowed to include bank holidays within this number – though some give them on top as extra time off, meaning you could have more than 28 days' paid holiday in total.

• Work part-time? Multiply the number of days a week you work by 5.6 to get your entitlement. So if you work three days a week, you're entitled to 16.8 days' holiday a year. If you work two days a week, it's 11.2 days.
  
  If your entitlement includes part of a day, you should ask your employer what to do with it. They may suggest that you start one of your shifts later or finish earlier. They CAN'T round your paid holiday entitlement down.

• If you only work for part of the year (seasonally), or the amount you work varies (you have irregular hours), you build up holiday at a specific rate. As of 1 April 2024, this is calculated as 12.07% of the hours you work in a week or month (depending on if you're paid weekly or monthly), rounded up to the nearest half-hour. For example, if you work 30 hours and you're paid weekly, you'll build up four hours of holiday (30 × 12.07 ÷ 100 = 3.621).

• If you leave your job without taking your holiday, your employer MUST pay you for any untaken holiday. This is the case even if you're sacked.

If you're not sure about your entitlement or you're struggling to work it out, talk to your employer or contact Acas for free, impartial one-on-one advice.

Step 3: Talk to your employer

Once you've worked out how much paid holiday you're entitled to, you'll need to talk to your employer about taking that time off, or getting paid for unused holiday if you've left your job.

Pat Hicks, advisor for Acas, said: "Some people might find it quite a daunting idea to raise a concern with their employer, but it may be a genuine mistake they did not realise has been made. Talking to the employer informally might be enough to highlight the issue and get it resolved."

You can do this in-person, over text, or however you usually communicate with your employer. If you're a current employee, you can also try asking for help from a coworker or a Trade Union representative (if you have one).

Speaking to your employer casually should hopefully be enough, but if you're not getting anywhere, the next step would be to raise a formal complaint.

As a last resort, you may be able to make a claim to an employment tribunal – but there are strict time limits for doing this. However, taking this route is a big decision to make, so get all of the facts together first and strongly consider contacting Acas or Citizens Advice for free guidance and support before going ahead.