When you have built up a lot of holiday time at work, you need to make sure that you take the time off or you can lose it.

What would you do if you tried to take your earned time off, but your boss refused to let you?

That is what happened to the employee in this story, so he read the employee contract and found a way to make sure he got paid out for the time he earned.

Check it out.

The time “read your contract” backfired regarding holiday pay

Back in 2015 I worked for a pretty dismal call centre.

It was an outsourced centre that handled customer support for a lot of UK retailers.

Staff turn over was real high, with the vast majority being on temporary contracts and the promise of a permanent contract being hung over people heads to make them suck up being treated like crap.

At least he got hired full-time eventually.

After working there for about two years, in late February of that year I was offered a permanent contract because they wanted to put me on their team leader programme.

The pay was slightly better, the job security was better, the only major difference was how holidays where handled.

People on temporary contracts where paid for any unused holidays at the end of the working year in April.

People on permanent contracts had to use their holidays or they would lose them.

Good thinking, never give up free time off.

I had just over 3 weeks holidays saved up, so the day I accepted I booked 3 weeks of in March so as i wouldn’t lose them in April.

March rolled around and my manager told me that my holidays had been refused.

I said that’s fine as long as they pay me for them, and he replied that no if you dont use your holidays you lose them.

I said that i was trying to use my holidays and they where not letting me.

Wow, this is very rude.

He shrugged said it’s the “duty of the employee to manage their holiday time wisely and I should read my contract” despite the fact i had only gotten that contract 3 weeks earlier and the holidays worked differently.

Understandably annoyed that evening i went home and read my contract from beginning to end and discovered my manager had overlooked one crucial part of the paper work.

Oh, this will work out just fine.

The contract clearly stated I had to give a weeks notice, and that any holidays not used would be paid to any leaving employee in full on their last paycheck.

The next day I came into work and announced I would be quitting unless paid my holidays or allowed to take the time off, and if they accepted my notice then to be sure my holiday days was included in my final paycheck.

Exactly, the company is being unreasonable here, not the employee.

My boss asked me if I was really going to quit over this, and I replied was he really going to lose one of his most reliable employees over this.

He wouldn’t budge, I assume he thought I was bluffing.

Hopefully, he got in big trouble for this.

So I handed in my notice, and on my leaving interview with my managers manager made sure to explain exactly why I was leaving.

And yes my final paycheck did include my unused holiday days.

Why is it that some companies make it so difficult for employees to take the time away that they earned?

Read on to see what the people in the comments think about this.

And they wonder why people quit.

Yup, never work for a thief.

Why do managers do this?

This is exactly right.

Exactly, they were trying to steal from this guy.

Some bosses will do anything to get out of providing the benefits the employees are entitled to.

It is always a good idea to quit in this situation.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.