Solicitor advice required please (free if possible!)

Case · April 1, 2020

Mods - This thread can be deleted once I’ve had a couple of replies - don’t need it hanging around - Ta

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ok - My brother works for a popular high street phone company in Ireland.

Last Monday they closed all their branches temporarily for at least three weeks. This is likely to be extended. He was laid off on a temp basis, as were all his colleagues.

He had 10 days holidays booked from work. All holidays must either be taken by end of April. They cannot be rolled over to the new year, starting in May, but any untaken holidays are paid by the company.

Now. My brother has been told that despite the company being closed down, he still has to take his holidays. He cancelled his holidays, by email, the day the company temporarily closed. His colleagues, who have between 2 and 10 days holidays outstanding have all been told they will be paid them if they have not been taken by the end of April.

The company will be paid by the Govt while my brother and his colleagues are furloughed. But they will not pass his holiday pay onto him as ... the company is closed.

When he queried this he either received a phone call or email (I’m not sure) from the company, calling him ‘a disgrace for trying to take money from the company at this time’.

What, if any, are his options do you think?

This is Ireland, not UK, so employment law may be different.

Ta

Nathan Explosion · April 1, 2020