Declined annual leave - is this legal?

helly84

Oh right, sorry - I obviously completely misread that! How is that they could decline the request now, when they're supposed to give me 7 days' notice?

anamenottaken

helly84 wrote: »

Oh right, sorry - I obviously completely misread that! How is that they could decline the request now, when they're supposed to give me 7 days' notice?

I was sending you a PM while you were responding!

Jakg

helly84 wrote: »

Oh right, sorry - I obviously completely misread that! How is that they could decline the request now, when they're supposed to give me 7 days' notice?

If a accept a request, but then cancel it, they are supposed to give however much notice and employee would give.

In this case, they never approved the request, so they aren't cancelling it - they are refusing it.

pmduk

They might also argue that you should have had no expectation of having the leave approved as you requested it outside the permitted period. ie in July when the cut-off date was June.

helly84

Jakg - but I think the law is that in order to refuse it they need to provide the same notice as I am taking off.

To quote Yougov: 'An employer can refuse a leave request but they must give as much notice as the amount of leave requested, eg 2 weeks’ notice if the leave requested was 2 weeks.'

Takeaway_Addict

helly84 wrote: »

Jakg - but I think the law is that in order to refuse it they need to provide the same notice as I am taking off.

To quote Yougov: 'An employer can refuse a leave request but they must give as much notice as the amount of leave requested, eg 2 weeks’ notice if the leave requested was 2 weeks.'

There is alot of postering on this thread, the employer has refused it, whether rightly or wrongly...do you know your plan of action?

helly84

Oh, I'm raising it with HR and seeing an employment lawyer in the morning - I'm trying to gauge on here whether I will be wasting my money to do that because I don't have a leg to stand on.

The response has obviously been mixed but as far as I can tell they haven't given me enough notice and that's that. Really appreciate everyone's input.

RichardD1970

helly84 wrote: »

Jakg - but I think the law is that in order to refuse it they need to provide the same notice as I am taking off.

To quote Yougov: 'An employer can refuse a leave request but they must give as much notice as the amount of leave requested, eg 2 weeks’ notice if the leave requested was 2 weeks.'

I think it is on about refusing already authorised leave otherwise it makes no sense.

I could go into work tomorrow and request two weeks holiday starting from next week and they wouldn't be able to refuse it as they can't give two weeks notice. :huh:

helly84

Hi RichardD1970, sorry, I didn't post the whole YouGov section as I didn't think it was relevant, but this is it:

'The general notice period for taking leave is at least twice as long as the amount of leave a worker wants to take (eg 2 days’ notice for 1 day’s leave), unless the contract says something different.

An employer can refuse a leave request but they must give as much notice as the amount of leave requested, eg 2 weeks’ notice if the leave requested was 2 weeks.'

So you have to give 2x the amount of leave you want to take as notice and they then have to give 1x the amount of leave you want to take as notice if they refuse. I think this is right - that's the only way I can interpret it, anyway.

HappyMJ

helly84 wrote: »

Oh, I'm raising it with HR and seeing an employment lawyer in the morning - I'm trying to gauge on here whether I will be wasting my money to do that because I don't have a leg to stand on.

The response has obviously been mixed but as far as I can tell they haven't given me enough notice and that's that. Really appreciate everyone's input.

The problem with your plan of speaking to an employment lawyer is that your job will not be around for much longer.

Personally I'd be taking the leave anyway...telling them in advance that's what I'd be doing. Yes your job is at risk but do you really want your leave to be cancelled with less than a weeks notice causing the loss of all the money spent so far on the holiday again.

I've has this crap/rubbish from employers before so when I resigned from my last job way back in 1996 I told myself to never ever take an employed job working for someone ever again. I'm been self employed ever since and can do pretty much whatever I want whenever I want....and I even get more money in the process. I can refuse to do work for clients and they find someone else but they tend to call me back in a few weeks to find out my availability and see if I can do something for them again. I'm less stressed and much happier. In the last 6 months of my employed job I took 3 months off on work related stress....never again.

If your manager thinks you need the time off as you said in one of your messages would your GP also think the same way? You could go and see your GP and see if you can get a fit note telling your employer you can't work for the next two weeks...bonus is you get SSP pay for that time and still get your 2 weeks of holidays to take another time.