Forced to take holiday for Christmas shutdown when I should be paid it.

utigers

Hi - I received an email saying our company is shutting down on the 2nd Jan and we will have to take a days holiday. We get in addition to our holiday entitlement the 3 days off between Christmas and New Year as 'company shutdown days'. However the comapany has decided to close on the 2nd. My T&C's of employment states 'In addition (to my holidays) full time employees may be entitled up to a maximum of 4 days Company shutdown. (the number of days Company shutdown is entirely at the discretion of ***** and the fact you receive 4 days in one year, does not entitle you to recieve 4 days in any subsequent year)

What do I do?

Is it worth taking further?

gettingtheresometime

Surely as its up to a maximum then they could argue that it shouldn't be classed as a discretionary day.

However if they follow the same procedure next year then you'll only have 2 days off as the 26th is on a saturday so the monday will be a bank holiday day (if that makes sense) so over the year they won't be giving out any more free days than they are this year.

It may be worth asking but they may decide not to be so generous and change everyone's t&c so that these free days are removed -so it depends really whether you want to run the risk of alienating everyone in the company

agrinnall

You shouldn't do anything, your employer is perfectly within their rights to tell you when to take your holiday (as long as they give the correct amount of notice, which they have in this case). if you kick off about it you might find that in future they'll still close but require employees to take all the time from their standard allowance - how popular with your colleagues would that make you?

https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/booking-time-off-

TBagpuss

No don't take it further. As it stands, your company is giving you 3 days paid time off. Your contract says that they may, not must, give you up to 4 days but that that is discretionary. You are not entitled to any days. They have decided to give you 3 days, not 4. They could decide to give you one, or 2 , or none. The 4 is a maximum, not an entitlement.

They are entitled to direct you to take a day as holiday - the requirement is that they give you notice of at least twice the amount of time they want you to take. They want you to take 1 day, so they would have to give you 2 days notice. They have actually given you 6 working days notice.

KiKi

Are you saying that the time you have off (3 for Christmas and 1 in January) isn't paid? It's not entirely clear from your opening post whether the shutdown days are paid or not.

utigers

Hi there thanks for the replies. In my contract I have 20 core days, 8 bank holidays, and in addition I then have up to a maximum of 4 days for company shutdown. It suits the company to close at this time of year.

I just wondered why do I have to use one of my core holidays when 4 days have been designated for shutdown periods?

gettingtheresometime

utigers wrote: »

Hi there thanks for the replies. In my contract I have 20 core days, 8 bank holidays, and in addition I then have up to a maximum of 4 days for company shutdown. It suits the company to close at this time of year.

I just wondered why do I have to use one of my core holidays when 4 days have been designated for shutdown periods?

Because the 4 days are discretionary days and the company has chosen not to use one of these days for that purpose.

If you push it I can see the company saying that the discretionary days are no longer to be counted and everyone has to keep enough of their core days to cover the Christmas period.

As I said before that will not make you Mr Popular

agrinnall

utigers wrote: »

I just wondered why do I have to use one of my core holidays when 4 days have been designated for shutdown periods?

Read the link that I posted previously, which explains that your employer can tell you when to use any days (or even all days) from your holiday allowance.

Another_not_new_user

utigers wrote: »

Hi there thanks for the replies. In my contract I have 20 core days, 8 bank holidays, and in addition I then have up to a maximum of 4 days for company shutdown. It suits the company to close at this time of year.

I just wondered why do I have to use one of my core holidays when 4 days have been designated for shutdown periods?

There is no such thing as core holidays. You are assuming that you have the right to choose when you take your annual leave. Nobody has that right. The right is to have 28 days annual leave each year. Beyond that, the employer is not obliged to give you any additional leave, and can dictate the dates that you take your leave - the whole of your leave if they wish. Very few employers that have shutdown periods give additional days leave, discretionary or not - they simply require you to save sufficient leave to cover these periods and if you do not, you simply do not get paid. Some companies actually do dictate when all holiday is taken at their own convenience.


As others have suggested, I would suggest that you accept the situation as it is, or it could be worse in the future, and if that happens it will affect more than you. Friends of mine are required to always keep three days leave for the Christmas shutdown, and this year, because it suits the employer to have that extra one day shut, the employer has, as a one off, given them one day extra leave. Even then the employer has been generous in giving that extra day. The deal you have is a good one. Looking gift horses in the mouth often ends up meaning you walk!