Hi, I have recently commenced working for a company that has a policy around Annual Leave which allows employees to carry over their unused Annual Leave for the next 3 months of the new year (we run Aug/July). If it is unused by the end of the 3 months it will be forefited. In looking through the current Annual Leave balances it clear that emplouee’s Annual Leave hasn’t actually been removed after the first 3 months, meaning that they have accured large Annual Leave balances.

My question; Is the company allowed to "buy back" some of the annual leave that the employees have from the previous year that should have been forfeited? Given that the employees believed that they had this entitlement it doesn’t seem right to remove it now, especially since that this hasn’t been enfored in the past. The plan is to "buy-back" a portion (say 5 days) and the employee forfeits the rest. All employees will then be ‘clear’ with the expectations regarding annual leave going forward.

Is this legal, and if it is, is there a maximum amount of days an employee can sell?

Thanks,