No holiday allowed between April & September - some advice??

sazzyb

My MIL's employer has stipulated no employees are to be entitled to any holiday between the months of April & September (inclusive). We just wondered if this is legal, I'm assuming so, but it does seem rather unfair that it's such a long period of time and effectively leaves their holiday year between October and March rather than the January to December it stipulates in their contracts.

Thanks to anyone who can answer in advance.

timmeh500

Employers can control when holidays are takenn. Is this a full time job? As even though employers can control when annual leave is taken I would've thought that 6 months is an unreasonable amount of time you are not allowed to take annual leave.

corbyboy

Legally, an employer is entitled to tell employess when they can and can't take their holiday.

Is there enough time for everybody to fit their holiday in? How many employees? What happens about Bank Holidays?

But the obvious question is why is there such a strange restriction?

agrinnall

It's certainly legal for the employer to stipulate when holidays may be taken, although I agree that it seems rather unfair to have such a lengthy period when no holidays can be taken. I'd imagine they will start to lose some employees who have kids if they can't take any time off during the summer holidays.

Is the MIL about to join this company (in which case she can decide whether the restriction is a deal breaker) or are they making a change to previous holiday arrangements? If it's the latter then I imagine they can still do it but if they recognise a union I would expect the union to at least have made some representation on behalf of their members.

sazzyb

The MIL is only part time - weekends - and has worked there for years so it's a change to her current contract (if indeed they do change her contract). It doesn't affect her quite as much as the full timers, to whom this rule also applies. I read something about the employer having to give double the amount of notice to the period they're stipulating but not sure if it applies in these circumstances. It does seem a rather strange restriction you're right. It's purely, from what we can gather, due to it being their busiest time, as it's seasonal-related work and since 2 employees are going on maternity leave and instead of covering them in other ways, the employer is hoping to use current staff we think. There are only approx 10 employees who work across the whole week - one employee has told them they've already booked a holiday and so that employee is being allowed to take the time but nobody else is, despite it not being in their contracts or no written notice being given. RE: bank holidays I'm not sure as they don't really affect my MIL, working only weekends.

SarEl

But - are there sound reasons for this? Taking holiday during these months at a summer tourist venue may be reasonable - a ski resort not so much! Olympics? - that's a big one for no leave in the period before, during and after right now. In other words, whether it is "legal" (actually, it's whether it is "reasonable" that matters) depends on why they said it!

getmore4less

Book the holidays quick before they(employer) start moaning too many people are off at the same time

make sure you take some in Jan-march

I expect there will be some sickness in the summer.

sazzyb

agrinnall wrote: »

Is the MIL about to join this company (in which case she can decide whether the restriction is a deal breaker) or are they making a change to previous holiday arrangements? If it's the latter then I imagine they can still do it but if they recognise a union I would expect the union to at least have made some representation on behalf of their members.

No union representation as far as I'm aware.

TagEHeuer

I work in hotels, when the olympics are on, we can't take any holidays either. No big deal for us. It's perfectly legal for them to do this.

paddedjohn

sazzyb wrote: »

My MIL's employer has stipulated no employees are to be entitled to any holiday between the months of April & September (inclusive). We just wondered if this is legal, I'm assuming so, but it does seem rather unfair that it's such a long period of time and effectively leaves their holiday year between October and March rather than the January to December it stipulates in their contracts.

Thanks to anyone who can answer in advance.

The holiday year is when you accrue the leave not necessarily when you can take it. School staff for example are normally only allowed to take their holidays when the school is closed.

lola34

This situation is affecting our family too, the problem is that although its only a couple of months we have actually had our holiday booked 6 months before we found out and I work shifts so the holiday was booked when I was on my break in the shifts so wouldn't have been at work anyway, we stand to loose £1000+ if we have to cancel - does anyone know where we stand