Holiday entitlement

Sarah69

I have just asked my employer for 2 weeks of in January. I have given him almost 6 weeks notice of this and he says no as he's short staffed and has nobody to cover my round (I'm a home carer) I could maybe have 1 week. I need 2 weeks because I'm doing a training course at my hospital to become a HCA. Can he do this? tour advice is welcomed. Thanks

engineer_amy

Unfortunately, employers can dictate when you take your holidays. The only legal restriction on them is that they allow you to take at least the statutory minimum number of days throughout the holiday year.
Your employer has given a business reason why you cant have it. he is short staffed, maybe others have already requested the same time off, and got their requests in before you - first come first served type of system.
Realistically there is not much you can do.. If you decide to go to the course and not go into work, you risk getting disciplined if your employer remembers you previously asked for the time off.

agrinnall

As amy has said, your employer has an absolute right to say when you take your leave as long as you are allowed to take it all within the leave year.

I would find out when the next training course is and ask whether you can have that time off before booking a place on the course.

Sarah69

What if gives this excuse every time I ask for 2 weeks off? If I was resigning and he is short staffed would he refuse to accept my resignation?

Poppie68

Sarah69 wrote: »

What if gives this excuse every time I ask for 2 weeks off? If I was resigning and he is short staffed would he refuse to accept my resignation?

If you resigned he will replace you, as already said an employer can dictate when you take your holidays. Your employer has given you their business reasons why 2 weeks is possible but 1 week is....all above board.

bugslet

No-one can refuse to accept a resignation.

Presumably other people have negotiated 1 or 2 weeks off and your employer has allowed it, so in other words you will get two weeks off.

Most places have a restriction on when you can take holidays of some sort or another. At ours, we have to keep 3 days for Xmas and then the rest can be taken at any time, but if two people are already booked off, then the answer will be no, it puts too much pressure on the business.

To take it to an extreme, if 10 people in our place ( which is 50% of the driving force) all took the same two weeks off, then we would be unable to fulfill our contractual obligations.

jobbingmusician

How often is this course run? Can you get a list of dates, and tell your employer that you need 2 weeks off on one of the attached list dates? There is presumably nothing in your contract that says you can't have more than a week at a time, and it does seem unreasonable to me if an employer tries to prevent an employee taking a 2 week break.

Takeaway_Addict

jobbingmusician wrote: »

How often is this course run? Can you get a list of dates, and tell your employer that you need 2 weeks off on one of the attached list dates? There is presumably nothing in your contract that says you can't have more than a week at a time, and it does seem unreasonable to me if an employer tries to prevent an employee taking a 2 week break.

But because something maybe unreasonable doesn't make it unlawful

Sarah69

We are quite a small agency so I know that nobody else has holiday time booked, when I have asked. I'm waiting for a response from the hospital regarding possible other dates. My manager does not like me much so I feel this is just an excuse not to let me have the time off. We are not allowed holiday in December at all which is when the first training at the hospital is.

jobbingmusician

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

But because something maybe unreasonable doesn't make it unlawful

The OP hasn't said how long she has been employed. Employers are supposed to behave like reasonable employers but in practice this obligation doesn't really kick in until the magic 2 years.

I think the OP should seek advice, but I suspect that any threat of dismissal for taking a two week holiday, where several alternatives have been given and there is no contractual requirement not to take more than a week at a time would automatically be unfair. Unreasonable can indeed mean unlawful.

OP, I assume there is no HR department?

Takeaway_Addict

jobbingmusician wrote: »

The OP hasn't said how long she has been employed. Employers are supposed to behave like reasonable employers but in practice this obligation doesn't really kick in until the magic 2 years.

I think the OP should seek advice, but I suspect that any threat of dismissal for taking a two week holiday, where several alternatives have been given and there is no contractual requirement not to take more than a week at a time would automatically be unfair. Unreasonable can indeed mean unlawful.

OP, I assume there is no HR department?

I disagree.

Unless protected by a defined charateristic the OP has no hope if the employer says holiday is only 1 week at a time.

Never mind the fact the OP has not mentioned a threat of dismissal.