Refusal of annual leave - advice please

SarEl

You are caught in a classic double bind which is caused by the law. Yes, you are entitled to take your annual leave, but you are not entitled to take it whenever you want. The employer can refuse, as they have done, due to business needs - but at the same time the employer must permit them to be taken. If at all possible I'd recommend avoiding a confrontation over this, but you need to be clear that it is your legal right to take the leave, and their legal responsibility to ensure that you can. If you cannot take leave between now and September, can you take it in October and November? OK, maybe not as attractive weatherwise, but if you want to go away it's cheaper. It rather sounds like your colleagues are a bit more "employment wise" than you have been and have booked everything in sight at an early stage - as lesson to remember, possibly, in future.

getmore4less

You could try the simple approach and point out that if the current system for requesting and approving holidays means that you or others cannot take your full legal entitlement then they need to change the system so you can have your statutory holidays or they are going to be breaking the law by not allowing you to have you minimum entiltlement.

Is it a big retail organizatoin with a higher level HR that you can deal with if the above fails.

Organization that have this isssue usualy get all the requests in together and allocate them to make sure that there is cover and every one gets holidays.


Another approach might be.

I have X days statutory holiday left in rder for the company to meet its legal obligations please advise when it will be convenient for the company for me to take these days since I am totaly flexable on dates.

pinkshoes

Zzzmaillists wrote: »

Thanks so much for the help as sat here worrying about it!

I work 38 hours a week, bank holidays are added to allowance rather than given which was a change imposed last year I have roughly 6/7 days remainding

You need to take your minimum 28 days per year, so I presume by "4 weeks leave" you mean 7 day weeks, so 28 days in total??

I would put in writing asking them to suggest which 7 days you can take as leave to meet the national minimum, and that if they can't fit in the days that you are legally entitled to take, then you are willing to compromise and have the seven days either rolled over until next year, or paid in full.

zzzmaillists

Thanks so much for your help
to clarify, i have used 22 of 28.5 days

rollover is not allowed and must be used up in the next 3 months, but the next three months are booked up (catch 22)

i did save some days as I have a little boy and wanted to ensure I had some leave should i need to take it to be on the safe side, but by being cautious its caught me out

lucylucky

pinkshoes wrote: »

You need to take your minimum 28 days per year, so I presume by "4 weeks leave" you mean 7 day weeks, so 28 days in total??

I would put in writing asking them to suggest which 7 days you can take as leave to meet the national minimum, and that if they can't fit in the days that you are legally entitled to take, then you are willing to compromise and have the seven
days either rolled over until next year, or paid in full.

Statutory leave cannot be bought or sold.


I would take the advice given earlier about asking how your employer intends to fulfil their legal obligation, stating that you are willing to be as flexible as possible.