Property Manager awarded £392k for 25 years of unused annual leave

A Property Manager who was unable to take time off for 25 years, accumulating to 827 untaken days holiday, has been awarded £392,000 at tribunal.

The employee (AB) had multiple annual leave requests denied due to staff shortages. Whilst he was told that the holiday entitlement would be paid in lieu when his employment ended, when he was later dismissed from the company, he did not receive payment for his 25 years' worth of accrued annual leave.

As part of his employment, AB was originally entitled to 30 days of annual leave, which later increased to 45 days. During his employment, he requested leave a total of 200 times in a 9-year period, which were all denied. 

Considering the ongoing denial of his holiday requests, AB asked instead for payment in lieu of his holiday entitlement, which his manager agreed to. Two years' requests (2001 & 2004) for payment in lieu totalling £15,000 were paid.  It was agreed that he didn’t need to submit paperwork to have his requests accepted or denied, but that he would instead keep track of his unused leave and it would be rolled forward to the following year. 

It was eventually agreed with AB that he would either receive his annual leave entitlement when requested or it would be paid at the end of his employment.  AB stated he and another employee were “saving for when needed or retirement”, as the company didn’t have a pension scheme. 

In 2022 AB was informed that his job as Commercial Manager was to be taken over by someone else. Despite having no formal responsibilities or position, he still remained employed by the company. However, he was later dismissed for ‘gross misconduct’ and was not paid in lieu of his holiday entitlement.

AB suggested that there was ‘no justification’ for the decision and he was not provided with the right to appeal.  During their defence, the company informed the court that his dismissal was due to AB renting out units to a company where his sons were directors, without declaring the conflict of interest to the board first. 

However, the judge concluded that there was an agreement between management and AB and that he would be paid in lieu of his holiday entitlement.  The judge also stated that it would otherwise be ‘inconceivable’ that he would not claim his entitlement annually.  As a result, AB was found to be owed £391,943 for his 827.25 days of untaken leave.

Additionally, the judge found that AB was unfairly dismissed, as he was not made aware of the charges or evidence against him or given the right to state his case at a disciplinary hearing.  He was also not offered the right to appeal the decision. The judge stated, “The reason for the claimant’s dismissal was not gross misconduct; I find that the reason for the claimant’s dismissal was that having been stripped of all his duties which had been allocated elsewhere, the respondent simply wanted to get rid of him”.  Because of this, he was provided a basic award of £14,070 and a compensatory award of £91,490 in addition to the £392,000 for his untaken holiday entitlement.

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