Can't take holidays due from work

bap98189

Your employer cannot refuse to allow you to take your annual leave. They can dictate when you can take it, but they cannot refuse to allow you to take it, in fact they have an obligation to ensure it is taken. Assuming you have the usual 28 days per year, they may allow you to carry 8 days over to next year, but you have a right to take the rest of it off in this holiday year.

I am guessing that you are not a member of a union, so you will have to deal with this yourself. I would start by talking to your manager. Ask them clearly that you have holidays to take before the end of the year, and since there appear to be no holiday slots available on the current system, ask them when it will be suitable for you to take these days off.

If this doesn't work, then you need to raise a formal grievance. Your employer should have a procedure in place for doing this. This just means you have to put your complaint in writing and submit it to the appropriate person (probably someone from HR).

If I were you, I would get as many of your colleagues to do the same thing, at the same time. That way they will have to take the issue seriously, and you cannot be singled out so easily.

Raksha

Beware, if you raise a grievance and haven't worked there for 2 years, they can (and probably will in my experience) ask you to leave...

WestonDave

Their policy is flawed anyway. There are 261 week days in an average year of which 8 are bank holidays when everyone is off. That leaves 253 days. Allowing 2 people per day off creates 506 available holiday days for people to take their 20 days non bank holiday leave. However with 40 staff with 20 days each you need 800 days so its impossible for all of them to take all of their holiday and only 2 be off on any given day. Seem to recall HMRC police working time regs - this might be worth an anonymous call to the relevant department!

marybelle01

Raksha wrote: »

Beware, if you raise a grievance and haven't worked there for 2 years, they can (and probably will in my experience) ask you to leave...

Only two years from 6th April - anyone employed before that it is still one year. But that is correct in principle, so if the OP is going to compain they need evidence of what has been said and grievances raised - dismissal for exercising a statutory right is unfair dismissal from day 1 (and automatically unfair if proven), so they need evidence that they've been denied holiday and raised complaints about it to stand a chance.

tosyn

WestonDave wrote: »

Copied from Business link which is the govts advice to employers -
"You should also note that it's unlawful to prevent a worker taking their statutory paid holiday entitlement. Therefore you may have to allow a worker's annual leave request right at the end of the leave year to ensure that they have taken their full entitlement of 5.6 weeks." http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1081597944&type=RESOURCES

Basically what they are doing is unlawful - they are allowed to restrict when you take holiday to cover operational requirements but only to the extent that it doesn't prevent you taking the statutory minimum during the year.

I do not think employer is doing anything wrong or unlawful here.

They are not dening holidays catzoo is entitled for the entire year - all they are doing in asking people to book leave up till December making sure no more than two persons are taking 'planned' leave.. Remember there could be other things people being absent from work for e.g sickness, leavers, training etc etc. So this is just a planning excercise

Depending on how it pans out - this could help them plan for Xmas holiday seasons to decide whether they need additional temp staffing. That is what it sugest to me. This is very normal and this is what everyone does in the service sector run upto xmas.

For catzoo, she should be able to sort out some holidays on a 1-to-1 negotiation basis with her manager before December.

marybelle01

tosyn wrote: »

I do not think employer is doing anything wrong or unlawful here.

They are not dening holidays catzoo is entitled for the entire year - all they are doing in asking people to book leave up till December making sure no more than two persons are taking 'planned' leave.. Remember there could be other things people being absent from work for e.g sickness, leavers, training etc etc. So this is just a planning excercise

Depending on how it pans out - this could help them plan for Xmas holiday seasons to decide whether they need additional temp staffing. That is what it sugest to me. This is very normal and this is what everyone does in the service sector run upto xmas.

For catzoo, she should be able to sort out some holidays on a 1-to-1 negotiation basis with her manager before December.

Yes the employer is doing something wrong here. They are saying that all holiday slots are booked for the rest of the year and anyone with leave entitlement left cant take it. That's wrong!

WestonDave

Tosyn - if you do the maths as above their policy of max 2 off makes it impossible for 40 staff to have 20 days off. Even with 3 off its still impossible. (759 days available, 800 needed). They ideally need to employ 3 more staff and allow 5 to be off each day which would give the same level of staff actually working and allow a bit of flexibility and choice in when people take holiday.

getmore4less

Remind your employer they are breking employment law and need to fix their policies,

As has been said(assuming the numbers are correct) this a systematic attempt to deny the statutory right to holiday with policy and mismagement of the distribution of the holidays.

There is provision in the legislation to only take 20 days and carry over the rest but they should not be bought out. problem with this is it makes the problem worse next year.

All the effected people could enmase resign and get the holiday paid that way.

I don't know if anyone has tried a contructive dissmisal case for failure to allow statutroy holidays, I would suggest it is a serious breach of contract.

One for the employment lawyers.

Start collecting evidence you are being denied the right to holidays ask in writing when you can take them.

bap98189

tosyn wrote: »

I do not think employer is doing anything wrong or unlawful here.

They are not dening holidays catzoo is entitled for the entire year - all they are doing in asking people to book leave up till December making sure no more than two persons are taking 'planned' leave..

If it is just a planning exercise then fine, but from the OP's posts it doesn't sound like that. Perhaps the OP can clarify, but either way, the employer must find dates for all their staff to take their annual leave entitlement. That's not an option, it's a legal requirement.

marybelle01

getmore4less wrote: »

Remind your employer they are breking employment law and need to fix their policies,

As has been said(assuming the numbers are correct) this a systematic attempt to deny the statutory right to holiday with policy and mismagement of the distribution of the holidays.

There is provision in the legislation to only take 20 days and carry over the rest but they should not be bought out. problem with this is it makes the problem worse next year.

All the effected people could enmase resign and get the holiday paid that way.

I don't know if anyone has tried a contructive dissmisal case for failure to allow statutroy holidays, I would suggest it is a serious breach of contract.

One for the employment lawyers.

Start collecting evidence you are being denied the right to holidays ask in writing when you can take them.

If the OP is going to stand up for themselves, it would be better to do so and save their evidence for if they are dismissed. Dismissal for exercising a statutory right is automatic and unfair dismissal at any point in employment, and the burden of evidence is on the employer to prove. They cannot claim constructive dismissal until twelve months anyway, and the burden of proof would be on the OP.