Under my employment contract, I am entitled to three weeks annual leave per year, which is to be taken over the Christmas and New Year period.

However, each year for the past three years I have been called back to work early.

As a result, I have not used my full annual leave entitlement.

I am owed 10 days, but my employer claims that these days were forfeited because they were not taken in the years they fell due. Is this correct?

Under the Holidays Act, employers are required to grant employees three weeks annual leave.

If your employer called you back to work early, then he or she did not grant your full entitlement and you are owed for the unused portion.

As regards the forfeiting of annual leave, the Employment Court ruled in a case involving the Napier Aero Club that employers are required to put in place positive steps to ensure that employees take their annual leave in the year the leave entitlement falls due.

Unless the employer does this, an employee's annual leave is not forfeited, but rather continues to accumulate.