Is my company being unreasonable?

midnight_ninja

rupee99 wrote: »

You are both missing the point

1 The OP asked if the employer was being unreasonable in not granting annual leave for the days in question.

2 The OP has taken nhis paternity leave

3 He may, just, have a case for unpaid maternity leave for 8th February, but doubtful at short notice or at all for 29 Jan/1 Feb or at all.

4 The tenor of his posts are that he wants to be paid for these days, at no time, as far as I can recall did he say he requested unpaid leave.

And as i said in my first post that the others days apart from the 8th are unreasonable , employees with children have the right to unpaid/paid leave for their children if needed - ie lack of childcare , medical appointments , sudden illness , the matter of whether it be paid is up to the employer

rupee99

At no time has the OP said that he wants unpaid parental leave, he has asked if the employer is being unreasonable in not granting annual leave. He has already had his full entitlement to paternity leave.

Notice the emphasis on the three types of leave involved here, so unless he does want the first type for 8th February then in answer to his original question.

NO the employer is not being unreasonable. You are answering a hypothetical question that has not been asked.

midnight_ninja

The original question asked was whether the comapany was being unreasonable in granting the annual leave .......... i only suggested that he may be able to put in a request for parental leave if needed

mikey72

No, I'm answering exactly the question you asked.

rupee99 wrote: »

And what, exactly, amongst the circumstances cited by the OP would constitute a reason for granting additional, unpaid, leave in excess of his statutory entitlement that he has already had?

and the other post was merely correcting the fact you had missed out several stautory rights to leave.

rupee99 wrote: »

Reasonable or unreasonable does not come in to it. The only statutory right is that you are entitled to a minimum of 28 days annual holiday, to include bank and public holidays, a year. Your employer is entitled to restrict when you take your holiday provided those restrictions do not prevent you taking them over the course of the year.

You may be upset and you may think that your employer has a duty to accomodate your wishes because of your personal circumstances. Unfortunately for you neither of those has a basis in law. It is up to you to negotiate with your employer, if he thinks your recent, although perfectly proper, absences have disrupted his workflow then he is entitled to refuse you leave now. It is up to you, by calm reasoned, argument to pursuade him otherwise.

Namely, maternity leave, paternity leave, and parental leave.

Roobarb73

I can see both sides, if I'm honest. Of course they do not have to let you take your annual leave at a time of their choosing if it doesn't suit the business. However, it would (in my opinion) be unreasonable if the reason they weren't letting you take it was because you had taken paternity leave as you have a statutory right to that .

It is also in your own interests not to use up too much of your annual leave too early in the leave year so you have enough to give yourself a decent break later (and with 2 kids, you'll need it!)

Is there a compromise to be had here? Say letting you have 1 or 2 of the days?

I think you have to give a minimum of 4 weeks' notice for parental leave and I believe it has to be taken in blocks of a week so that looks like a bit of a non starter I'm afraid.

rupee99

mikey72 wrote: »

No, I'm answering exactly the question you asked.




and the other post was merely correcting the fact you had missed out several stautory rights to leave.




Namely, maternity leave, paternity leave, and parental leave.

My original post referred to the subject of the thread, i.e. annual leave, the things you refer to are applicable in certain, restricted, circumstances that were not contemplated by the OP. Again you were answering a question that was not asked.

buglawton

jdturk wrote: »

....So please explain why companies should have to fork out for this extra cost?...

er... OP was not asking for UNPAID leave. What he needs might inconvenience his team and his manager for a few days, true, but I'm used to a workplace where team mates will cover for you if you need short term absence from normal duties.

At ths moment employers might be feeling bullish, jobs rather than workers being scarce... how long before the boot is on the other foot again and long term retention of the skilled folks is the real name of the game?

DVardysShadow

sandiep wrote: »

You have to remember that ontop of the cost of your wages and employer also has to pay out 12% employers national insurance contributions, and he has to pay for the 28 days a year that you're not working and generating income for them, and he has to pay cover for that 28 days. So basically, for every 10 working employees, and employer is paying for 12.3 people. Plus all costs associated with training, canteens, etc.

When money is tight, and business is tough, it does tend to focus an employers attention on productivity. And three weeks holiday in the last month wouldn't go in your favour when putting in for a holiday leave request.

Those statistics are amazing. For 24 hour cover jobs they have to pay someone else to cover the job while the employee is at home sleeping too. And if they work in an office, they have to keep a roof maintained JUST SO THE EMPLOYEE DOES NOT CATCH COLD. No wonder industry is not competitive.

NorhternMonkey

Thanks for the feed back.

I have found out that my company are unwilling to grant leave because they say they have lost out because of the snow! I was on paternity leave (which I am fully entitled to) when we had snow, ad if I wasnt, I wouldn't have been able to go to the office or go out to see customers. So I haven't had any time off this year! ( I Know its only Jan)

I regards to waiting to see my family, I've been waiting since september, didint want to stray to far over christmas and new year as Baby could have come anytime and the OH didint want to be away from home. If we waited to see the family at our house we would still be seeing them next christmas!

I only took a week off before christmas because I couldn't take it any sooner, as other people where off and I was asked to cover someone elses role, and if I didn't take it I would lose it as we can't carry holiday over or it isnt paid.

I really feel that I am expected to bend over backwards for the company but the company is unwilling to move at all.

thanks again for the feed back.

farmerboy

NorhternMonkey wrote: »

Thanks for the feed back.

I have found out that my company are unwilling to grant leave because they say they have lost out because of the snow! I was on paternity leave (which I am fully entitled to) when we had snow, ad if I wasnt, I wouldn't have been able to go to the office or go out to see customers. So I haven't had any time off this year! ( I Know its only Jan)

.

Sounds like its a company wide policy then and being applied to all staff, so it seem fair to me.

I wish we I worked for your company, the dates when you can't have hoilday are quite good, I'm self employed and my dates are from Mid march to end of November, because of planting and harvesting on farms. One place I worked had an May -October embargo due to the business nature