Leave request for Christmas Eve denied. Need advice

Wiggle1974

A company which has always mandated the Christmas period to be taken as leave has just sent an email saying that no more leave will be approved for the 23rd and 24th of Dec.

"No excuses or mitigating reasons will be allowed. You have all had plenty of warning"

"If you are booked to jobs durring September or October and request leave, this will not be allowed at this time"


I am no expert, but are you not by law supposed to allow staff unpaid or paid leave if a dependant falls ill?
"no mitigating reasons will be allowed" to me says that your offspring will have to fend for themselves at home not matter how young. or what if God forbid, a family member died durring when you were booked to a job?

In this situation, a persons childminder can not look after the child on 23/24 Dec. The member of staff was told "you have 4 moths to make alternative arrangements"

Does anyone know where they stand legally if the staff member was to resign based upon this with regards to constructive dismisal or similar?

Also, at a time of good will to all men, what about having to work all day on Christmas Eve and then drive for 6 hours plus to get to family.
This would mean arriving after 1am on Christmas morning with small children missing out on the magic and excitement of Christmas Eve. Not to mention the parents having to pack/unpack all present related gifts and not getting to bed until 2 hours before the kids get up to open stockings etc.

The company has now gracisouly said the 23rd can be taken as leave, but the staff member must still work the 24th.... What use is that if a family wishes to spend it with family?

This is not a customer facing company and the staff member concerend would only be producing digital data to issue to clients.
Deadlines are project specific and generally not daily.
Does the company have to be able to demonstrate they have programmed work 4 months ahead and KNOW there will be deadlines on 24th that only this member of staff can produce?
There are many people in this company with the same skills as this person that could do any urgent tasks.

Any opinion would be appreciated, any legal definates would be amazing.

My opinion is that this staff member could either hand their notice in now and look for another job or, wait until 4 weeks before Xmas and hand their notice in then.
This would allow them to look for other employment and also seek legal advice.

jacques_chirac

The employer must give time off for the worker to arrange care for their dependants, not to do the caring themselves. Hence the employer is correct, the worker has four months to make arrangements. They must also give reasonable opportunity for the worker to take their statutory holiday entitlement within the holiday year - but they can largely dictate when this be taken (or at least, they can dictate when it may not be taken).

The rest is of no concern to the employer - it is not their problem if the worker chooses to make a long drive after working a full day.

Constructive dismissal? Not a hope.

FBaby

YOu'd be prepared to give up your job just because of having to work on Christmas eve? Why do you seem to think that it is outrageous to expect people to work on that day? The vast majority of people do. It is likely that this decision was made on the basis that the place is totally quiet on that day because everyone is requesting that day off and losing business and if they were to say ok to one, others would complain that they want the day off too.

As for emergency, one could assume that they would maybe approve unpaid leave but they might keep a close eye on it. Might be struggle to justify an emergency each year on that day.

Up to you, but it would be a pity to resign to have no other choice but to take up another one which happens to follow the same principle.

bargainbetty

The employer has not said that emergencies will not be permitted, only that pre-booked leave may not be taken on those dates. This time-frame allows a substantial time-frame for making personal arrangements and frankly, not everyone has the same ideas about Christmas for religious or cultural reasons, so your argument about 'goodwill to all men' is moot.

There is absolutely no hope of a legal case on this one, and if the person hands in their notice without having obtained alternative employment and becomes unemployed, there is every chance they will be considered to have done so willfully and won't get benefits.

Your employer is not obliged to consider individual personal circumstances when making policy for all staff. Only to not discriminate. And since this relates to a standard working day, and not a religious holiday, you can't claim that either.

Sorry to be harsh, but yours is purely an emotive argument and has no foundation in law.

Edit: Please note, there is a consideration to be given to taking a sickie on the day in question. If you have previously had the leave refused, be very careful. If you or a dependent has a legitimate illness, all well and good, but if you decide to pull a fast one and then your boss sees contradictory pictures on Facebook etc, you'll find yourself on the end of a disciplinary!

Wiggle1974

We have no family with in 200 miles.
There is no carer available in the area at all.

All friends will either be working or away with family already. Not to mention, everyone has their own thing to do the 2 days before Christmas.
We really have NO options.

Of course we would not take a sicky or anything stupid like that.

jacques_chirac

Wiggle1974 wrote: »

We have no family with in 200 miles.
There is no carer available in the area at all.

All friends will either be working or away with family already. Not to mention, everyone has their own thing to do the 2 days before Christmas.
We really have NO options.

Of course we would not take a sicky or anything stupid like that.

What are the other parents that use your child minder doing - perhaps they could help you out? You refer to 'we', what is the other parent doing? What about local nurseries, they may be able to accommodate for one day?

Funky_Bold_Ribena

What is it you are actually trying to do on Christmas eve?

cr1mson

Could family not come to you instead and look after kids? That would solve both problems.

Once we had kids we said no travelling at Christmas come to us as we both hated not being at home for Christmas when we were little.

C

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

What is it you are actually trying to do on Christmas eve?

Have their cake and eat it, by the looks of things.

Southend1

Spare a thought for those working in retail. By the time they have managed to kick out the last of the last minute shoppers on christmas eve they still have to tidy the store, change all the layouts and mark down all the stock ready for the Boxing Day sales.

Takeaway_Addict

I advise you to find an arrangement. You have 4 months. Plenty of time to sort things out!

Your gripe is with your childminder rather than your employer. Find a different childminder?