Employer cancelled my holiday, can they do this?

Old_Git

when a company asks for a reference the employer can simply say NO COMMENT .
It says a lot and yet says nothing .

Crooky_2

Bad references are prefectly legal. However as stated they must be factually correct - and rightly so imo. However many companies policies are not to give them, and a large number of companies now will only confirm employment dates and nothing more.

Ewarwoowar2

Getting back to the original question re: cancelling annual leave. It's more complicated than most people think.

Under the Working Time Regs (the Govt. legislation that lays down the law on holidays), a worker must give notice of a request to take annual leave (regulation 15). The notice by a worker must be at least twice the period of annual leave that they are requesting (regulation 15(4)(a)). Therefore, if they want a week off, they must give two weeks' notice. The employer may refuse the request by serving a counter-notice.

The counter-notice from the employer must be given at least as many calendar days before the proposed leave commences as the number of days which the employer has refused (regulation 15(4)(b)).

So if you're asking for a week off and have given your employer more than two weeks notice of the request, your employer can only cancel the leave if they tell you at least a week before you were due to go on leave.

Old_Git

Ewarwoowar2 wrote: »

Getting back to the original question re: cancelling annual leave. It's more complicated than most people think.

Under the Working Time Regs (the Govt. legislation that lays down the law on holidays), a worker must give notice of a request to take annual leave (regulation 15). The notice by a worker must be at least twice the period of annual leave that they are requesting (regulation 15(4)(a)). Therefore, if they want a week off, they must give two weeks' notice. The employer may refuse the request by serving a counter-notice.

The counter-notice from the employer must be given at least as many calendar days before the proposed leave commences as the number of days which the employer has refused (regulation 15(4)(b)).

So if you're asking for a week off and have given your employer more than two weeks notice of the request, your employer can only cancel the leave if they tell you at least a week before you were due to go on leave.

just suppose I ask for a week off and give say a months notice .My employer agrees to this request .Then ten days before my holiday they change there mind .Can they do this .

Uncertain

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

Bit of an overstatement about the reference. Companies are only allowed to decline a reference and are not allowed to put anything bad into a reference letter. The previous employee can request a copy of the letter from the new potential employer and if anything on this statement resulted in the person being disadvantaged, they can take them to court.

Where or where does this total myth keep coming from?

Providing a reference is truthful and not deliberately misleading it can say anything the old employer likes.

The only legal comeback would be if it were not true or was INTENDED to mislead.

Some firms may, internally, put further restrictions on what their staff are allowed to put in references but this is a different matter. Often this is brought about by a totally out of proportion fear of litigation. Similar to "caution, contents may be hot" on a coffee cup!

Ewarwoowar2

Old_Git wrote: »

just suppose I ask for a week off and give say a months notice .My employer agrees to this request .Then ten days before my holiday they change there mind .Can they do this .

Yes, under the statutory scheme I set out, they can. This is because the counter notice cancelling the leave was given more than a week before the holiday began.

However, having said that, the statutory scheme can be amended by the terms of the employment contract. Therefore, if the employment contract says something different, this has to be adhered to. Also, the employer has to act reasonably. Therefore, if the holiday was cancelled without good reason, it might be a breach of contract.

This is obviously a kick in the nuts if you've booked flights, hotel, etc...