(UK) Holiday entitlement during first 3 months aka. "probation period"

Question

I've been working for a company in UK for 3 months (exactly 29.06 to 29.09) after which the company has been sold.

(edit: actually my contract says that I started on 2.07 which isn't true, but that hopefully doesn't change anything)

With the last pay we were supposed to receive our accrued holiday entitlement paid in lieu.
..and most of us (employees) did but I didn't.

When asked about that my ex-boss aruges that I didn't finish my probation period of 3 months and therefore am not entitled to any holiday.

(She also claims that had I worked more than 3 months I'd get 7 days of holiday for the whole probation period)

Now as far as I found online - there's no such thing in work law as 'probation period' and that for each month I worked I should get 1/12th of my annual holiday.

Is that true?

Answer 1

Your boss is totally wrong. Legally, there is no such thing as a "probation period" in the UK. You have the right to your holiday payment, according to the days that you worked.

What can happen: The legal minimum is I think 28 days per year including bank holidays, but most companies give 23 or 24 days PLUS eight days bank holiday. Your contract may say that the first three months are called probation period, and during that time you only get the legal minimum, and after that the much more common higher amount. That would be legal. But even so, you would be entitled to seven days, minus any bank holidays where you didn't work.