Annual leave withheld by Pennine Acute Trust, says former employee

Pennine Acute Trust NHS

Pennine Acute Trust has come under fire from Judith Wilkinson, after the Trust withheld annual leave she says she is entitled to.

Following an informal discussion of over five months, Judith then put in a formal grievance regarding her outstanding annual leave. Despite her forms saying ‘formal grievance’ at the top, she was told the Trust ‘don’t like formal grievances’ and was told it was, in fact, informal.

Ms Wilkinson took the matter to appeal and was told she could not claim the annual leave as she did not apply to carry it over, despite her being unaware she could even claim it.

She explained: “Their reasoning for not giving me the annual leave was that I hadn’t checked whether I was entitled to it. My line manager, HR and wages all didn’t know where to check for this either, or if I was entitled. If I didn’t know I had it, how could I apply to carry it over?

“At the appeal, the associate director, who was adjudicator as well, brought up a new piece of ‘evidence’ and said it was my fault as I hadn’t filled in the start date on the form. The form was ambiguous as it said ‘NHS start date’. As it was on a new starter form, I took it to mean this employment. Even so, I had checked the part where it asks if previous employees had paid into the pension fund.

“The manager who filled in the section above mine didn’t tell me I should have filled in my original start date on the form. No-one pointed out I hadn’t filled it in correctly. Why not send it back and say it’s not been filled in correctly?”

Ms Wilkinson added: “My line manager said there were others who hadn’t been paid annual leave they were entitled to, but the NHS didn’t want to look into it because of the job it would create to check everyone’s. It’s just so ridiculous.”

Ms Wilkinson resigned from her job at the end of February.

A spokesperson for The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Under Trust policy we are not able to comment on individual employment contracts or personal matters relating to our staff, but we can confirm that the relevant employment policy was followed and we now consider the matter to be closed.”