advice on annual leave request

Gerrym1984

Could i ask if there is anything stopping an employer from using length of service as the criteria for leave requests. It strikes me as grossly unfair to give first preference to those staff with longest service, not to mention it could surely be assumed that age discrimination may be occuring???? I appreciate i may be off the mark but this is really getting to me. Apparently the leave is done like this as set out in the staff handbook - i will check this however

heretolearn_2

I would have said no - before the age discrimination legislation came in. Employers can use any criteria they want if it's not discriminatory, so in the past length of service was a perfectly valid way to handle this. Some firms do it first-come, first-served, others do it by order of seniority. I don't know if this would be covered by age discrimination or not, I suppose seniority could possibly also now not be possible under this.

Is it really worth upsetting the apple cart over though, it's quite a minor quibble?

SarEl

I would also say no. The employer can allocate leave dates, or approve leave dates, pretty much as they wish - including by whim, although I am sure they would come up with a better explanation than that. It isn't pay or benefits determined by age - it's simply a system for allocating leave requests. As such it is probably as good as any other. Of course, before you went off to tribunal to claim age discrimination you would have to go through the full employers grievance procedure. And they might decide they agree with you. At which point you will have marked a target on your back for all employees with long service to shoot at. And of course the employer will simply introduce another system - which you may like even less. And so might everybody else.

There is a lot of wisdon in the Chinese proverb about being careful what you wish for, because you might get it. Making an issue out of this may not win friends and influence people

scooterchick

Not sure if there's anything legal but you're right, it's grossly unfair. I was in this position many years ago in the civil service. The department I worked in was no longer recruiting and no-one would ever leave. Which meant every year I was bottom of the pile and lucky if I got May or September. Thankfully a lot of complaints later they agreed to change it. Now (an where I currently work, still civil service) we all try to agree leave. If there's too many wanting the same 2 weeks then it goes to a ballot. Much fairer.

How do your colleagues feel? Could some of you suggest a fairer system?

scooterchick

As for long service employees not being friends with you, well tough. They have to get with the times. That draconian system is well outdated.

scooterchick

heretolearn wrote: »

Is it really worth upsetting the apple cart over though, it's quite a minor quibble?

Probably not a minor quibble if you're the one getting September every year for your holidays. Especially if you have children.

heretolearn_2

that's true. Although if employers give parents priority over school holiday dates that means non parents can't go on holiday in the summer and then that's not fair on them either!

That's why I decided to do first-some, first-served now I'm in charge of this. whoever is most organised gets their dates. Those who leave it late to decide what they want to do take what's left.

Winky,_The_House_Elf

I work for a large Organisation, which used to do it in order of seniority, you would all get to pick your main 2 weeks, and then in the second round you could book your 3rd week. It meant that most people could get either summer hols or Christmas, and was accepted by all.

They changed it as it potentially breeched the Age Discrimination Act, and now we have the ludicrus situation where holidays are opened up a week at a time, 18 months in advance, with a lottery drawn for the most popular days! In the past 5 years I've never had Christmas, Easter or the summer holidays off as it was the luck of the draw!

I returned from Mat Leave recently and I am facing no holidays from May until November, as its all been booked up since 2010! The annoying thing is people book them as soon as they are released as they might need them (Who bloody knows about holidays 18 months in advance???) then cancel close to the date.

As you can probably tell, no system is perfect!

scooterchick

Winky,_The_House_Elf wrote: »

I work for a large Organisation, which used to do it in order of seniority, you would all get to pick your main 2 weeks, and then in the second round you could book your 3rd week. It meant that most people could get either summer hols or Christmas, and was accepted by all.

They changed it as it potentially breeched the Age Discrimination Act, and now we have the ludicrus situation where holidays are opened up a week at a time, 18 months in advance, with a lottery drawn for the most popular days! In the past 5 years I've never had Christmas, Easter or the summer holidays off as it was the luck of the draw!

I returned from Mat Leave recently and I am facing no holidays from May until November, as its all been booked up since 2010! The annoying thing is people book them as soon as they are released as they might need them (Who bloody knows about holidays 18 months in advance???) then cancel close to the date.

As you can probably tell, no system is perfect!

That is a ludicrous system. Although as you haven't had the opportunity to book any weeks (as you've been off on mat leave) you should be accommodated, even if it means they go over their quota.

Winky,_The_House_Elf

Unfortunately you are supposed to contact your manager and arrange for them to book the time off as it becomes available, but when you're dealing with a new born the idea of a holiday in 18 months time slips your mind! The new holiday year starts in March, so there's no legal requirement, other than to let me use this years allowence before then (In fact thats why I'm off today!)

Stupidity in the purest form!

Gerrym1984

Thanks for the replies, all of which has been interesting. Basically theres a leg to stand on despite it being a prehistoric way of doing things, (given those in the job longer) in my experience are also higher up on the payscale it is a bitter pill to swallow. I was hoping i guess that there should be a system that tries to accomodate everyone rather than the few.

thanks again guys & gals