Employer cancelling authorised holiday

melsieloo

Hi all

Sorry if this has already been asked. Alot of us have had Xmas booked off since January as we were told the whole site would be shut down so everybody would be getting Xmas off. We have now been told that they've changed their mind and want to run over Xmas.

They could potentially cancel holiday of those who have it booked off to get the skills they want if they don't get enough volunteers. There's nothing in our contract to say they have the right to cancel authorised holiday or in the Company handbook and it's a strict company rule that we can't carry holiday over and we are restricted to how many people can have time off at a time so there's no way everyone will get their holiday entitlement in before the end of the year. But they may consider it in this circumstance, it's not a definate option we've been given.

So my question is do they have the right to cancel our holiday after it has been authorised?

Buellguy

Well, you've now got the argument to carry the leave over (hell, even when I was in the Army, it was only cancelled in exceptional (i.e. operational) reasons)

melsieloo

Yeah I don't trust them as far as I can throw them and noticed the wording they used that they would 'consider' or 'potentially' carry them over, I'll certainly be fighting them for at least 'definatly' carry them over, in writing. That's why a lot of us put holiday forms in anyway even though they said it would be shut down, we didn't trust them to stick to it and thought we'd be covered with authorised holiday.

anamenottaken

melsieloo wrote: »

Hi all

Sorry if this has already been asked. Alot of us have had Xmas booked off since January as we were told the whole site would be shut down so everybody would be getting Xmas off. We have now been told that they've changed their mind and want to run over Xmas.

They could potentially cancel holiday of those who have it booked off to get the skills they want if they don't get enough volunteers. There's nothing in our contract to say they have the right to cancel authorised holiday or in the Company handbook and it's a strict company rule that we can't carry holiday over and we are restricted to how many people can have time off at a time so there's no way everyone will get their holiday entitlement in before the end of the year. But they may consider it in this circumstance, it's not a definate option we've been given.

So my question is do they have the right to cancel our holiday after it has been authorised?

Yes, they can cancel if they give you appropriate notice.

k3lvc

And depending on the industry it seems a fairly dramatic measure to decide not to close over Christmas at short notice. IMHO if there's any chance that this is a last ditch effort to save a failing business I'd be inclined to be working rather than worrying about the legalities of cancelling holidays

theoretica

I wonder if there is mileage in people volunteering to come in over xmas conditional on the leave being carried over?

melsieloo

No, it's not a failing business. If it was, I'd be the first to volunteer. I think it's just a case of they've fallen behind with orders because of whatever reasons or they want to get ahead but definately not failing

melsieloo

anamenottaken wrote: »

Yes, they can cancel if they give you appropriate notice.

Do you know what the appropriate notice is?

LittleVoice

melsieloo wrote: »

Do you know what the appropriate notice is?

Think you will find it is twice the the length of the holiday to be taken.

Actually it may be just a minimum of the same amount of time as the holiday rather than twice the amount.

I'll try to find out more.

melsieloo

theoretica wrote: »

I wonder if there is mileage in people volunteering to come in over xmas conditional on the leave being carried over?

Well they've said how many people they want to come in, they only had half a dozen volunteers before plus some people who had no choice as they owe them days back hence why they're now talking about cancelling people's holiday now to make up the rest.

annie1975_2

If they are authorised then they shouldn't be able to make you work them (but they do just what they like these days).It would be all the same if you had booked and paid for a holiday,bet they wouldn't reimburse you.