Advance leave
There are no rules stating that employees are entitled to advance leave; this is a matter for each employer and employee to agree. If you have agreed on advance leave (i.e. paid annual year already in the first qualifying year), the employee may in some cases be liable to repayment when they end their employment.
As an employer, you may have the right to offset advance leave against the holiday allowance to which the employee is entitled when they end their employment. However, you are not entitled to offset any advance leave taken by the employee more than five years before the end of employment.
If the employment ends within five years
Nor are you entitled to offset if the employment ends within the five-year period due to
- illness of the employee (whether job-related or not)
- dismissal by the employer (e.g. in the event of shortage of work)
- the employee quitting due to the employer failing to fulfil its obligations.
Agreement to offset against final pay
In order to be able to offset against final pay (pay in addition to holiday allowance), you must have a prior agreement with the employee to this effect. However, the employee can withdraw their consent to the offset at any time. If the employee does so, you have no right to offset the advance leave against final pay.
If the workplace is covered by a collective agreement, there may be different rules about advance leave.