Reminder to take holiday

To be able to rely on statutory provisions enabling accrued but untaken annual leave to be lost if it’s not taken in the current holiday year, you must have given your workers a reasonable opportunity to take that annual leave and encouraged them to do so, and you must have informed them that any leave not taken by the end of the holiday year, which cannot be carried forward, will be lost.

Active encouragement

You don’t have to force your workers to take their annual leave entitlement, but you must ensure they have the reasonable opportunity of doing so, and this includes actively encouraging them to take it. You must also inform them that any annual leave not taken by the end of the holiday year, which cannot be carried forward, will be lost. The burden of proof is on you to show you’ve done all this. If you have and the worker then deliberately declines to take their annual leave, in full knowledge of the consequences, they’ve no statutory right to carry it over. They would then only be able to carry over some or all of their annual leave in exceptional circumstances, e.g. where they were unable to take it due to being absent from work on sick leave or maternity leave, or where they’ve a contractual right to carry over or you’ve otherwise expressly agreed to it being carried over. If, however, you’ve failed to take the actions highlighted above, the law provides that the worker is then entitled to carry over up to four weeks of their untaken annual leave (which must then be taken by them by the end of the first full holiday year after your failures have been remedied).

Use our Reminder to Take Holiday to positively encourage your workers to use their outstanding annual leave entitlement before the end of the current holiday year and to warn them of the consequences of failing to do so. To ensure you’re warning your staff in a timely manner, issue our letter around three months before the end of your holiday year, so that they still have plenty of time to take their outstanding entitlement.