Is it legal to sell holidays back to employer in UK

Question

I would like to know if it's legal to sell holidays back to employer in UK ?

My employer don't have any issue with this but I want to know if it's legal as I will be applying for ILR soon and need to declare this.

I am entitled to 25 days holiday each year + England bank holiday, and I am selling back 10 holidays while taking Paternity Leave for 2 weeks because of 2 reasons,

1. I will not loose part of my salary because of Paternity Leave as I only get a standard rate which is only £200 or so.

2. I am on Tier 2 visa and will be applying ILR so it will have no impact on my salary threshold. I earn around £38,000 and threshold is £35,600, so this reason has little impact but still.

Answer 1

It is legal for you to sell holidays back to an employer if employer and employee agree. There may be limits; your employer must make sure that you still get your statutory holidays (28 days including bank holidays, you have in practice 25 + 8 = 33 days, so ten days may be over the limit).

There is no selling back holidays if your employer disagrees, and if 10 days would exceed some legal limit then your HR should know. There may be the problem that selling back holidays while going on paternity leave is totally opposite of the purpose of paternity leave, so it may not be possible in this particular situation. Your HR should know.