Bosses are cheating their employees out of holidays, according to a survey by the Citizens Advice Bureau.

The report found many workers have been denied their legal entitlement of at least four weeks paid holiday a year.

Now the South West TUC is backing the report and demanding the government gets tougher with bosses flouting the law.

Paul Kilner, business management consultant for Citizens Advice, said: "The opportunity to take paid time off from the demands of work clearly plays a major part in the good work-life balance the government has said it wants all workers to enjoy."

But the organisation says south west workers are particularly vulnerable because so many work in the tourist industry, which employs a lot of casual staff in restaurants and hotels.

According to the report, employers are using a wide variety of excuses to wriggle out of giving the right amount of holiday including saying, they cannot afford it or that the worker is only part-time.

Others simply are not aware of their legal obligations, the report claims.

A Wiltshire man who had been a full-time delivery person for a national fast-food chain for eight months asked his about his entitlement to paid holiday and was told that he was only entitled to one week per year.

The report also found a number of cases where even if workers know their rights many are too scared of being sacked to take on their employers.

A Wiltshire woman had just started full-time as a senior care assistant in a care home.

When she asked her employer about her entitlement to paid holiday, she was told that she would not receive any paid holiday until she had been employed for 12 months and even then only three weeks per year.

When advised of her legal rights she said that she felt powerless to do anything because of the risk that she may be sacked if she did. Nigel Costley, regional secretary of the South West TUC, said: "It's precisely because of these bullying bosses that workers need the protection of the law.

"As trade unions, we do all we can to fight their corner, but we need the government to back us up and clamp down on these rogue employers."

The amount of paid holiday you should get is equal to the number of days you work in four weeks.

So, if you work five days a week, you are entitled to a minimum of four weeks paid holiday a year, but if you work two days a week, you are only entitled to eight days paid holiday a year.

Your contract of employment may give you more than this, but it cannot give you less.