Can my boss prioritise annual leave allocation for those with kids first?

Rosemary7391

Single and/or childless people have lives, hopes and dreams too. Not all of them are blowing in the wind!

Sangie, your logic is strange. Do you think that everyone needs to have as many children as is biologically possible for society to hold together? If not, then of course having children or not at any given time is a choice. Might be a heavily skewed one taken over a lifetime, but personally I'd rather work for longer than have an ever increasing population. My tuppence worth!

From an employer's perspective, continually giving holiday preference to one group of people will cause resentment among the non preferred group, and increase staff turnover, which costs money. So unless all the most valued staff are parents, which seems unlikely, it's bad for business. And even if they are, how many parents will feel aggrieved about working their fair share of holidays? I'd wager less than those who get annoyed by working every holiday...

PasturesNew

It could be considered ageist as people of a certain age will never be able to choose their holidays.

Poppie68

I think it's refreshing to see someone speak up....It's certainly not fair if the manager is prioritizing some over others, at work they should be equal not parents and non parents.

sangie595

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Totally irrelevent- If you don't like working Christmas then find a job that gives you the time off guarnateed, because you have children should not make you a priority for holidays.

And of course having a child is a choice (for the vast majority of times)- Nonsensical to say otherwise.

Well since I am not the person saying I want Christmas off, then perhaps you should address your first comment to the OP.

And I did not say that having children isn't a choice - I pointed out that if everybody chooses not to, then you are screwed. If you would like a system that doesn't depend on future generations paying for you pension, you had better speak to David Cameron pretty quickly.

And no it isn't irrelevant because the employer is under no legal obligation to act otherwise - again, if you don't like that, address your complaint to David Cameron - and I would believe an employers HR is confidential like I believe it won't rain in the next week.

Ms_Chocaholic

Surely though if everyone who wants the leave at Christmas asks for it, I assume it's still up to the Manager who gets it and she may still prioritise her favourites or am I missing something.

Takeaway_Addict

sangie595 wrote: »

Well since I am not the person saying I want Christmas off, then perhaps you should address your first comment to the OP.

And I did not say that having children isn't a choice - I pointed out that if everybody chooses not to, then you are screwed. If you would like a system that doesn't depend on future generations paying for you pension, you had better speak to David Cameron pretty quickly.

And no it isn't irrelevant because the employer is under no legal obligation to act otherwise - again, if you don't like that, address your complaint to David Cameron - and I would believe an employers HR is confidential like I believe it won't rain in the next week.

The 'you' was a general one.

As has been pointed out there could quite easily be a discrimination claim made against the employer for only choosing people with children.

sangie595

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

Surely though if everyone who wants the leave at Christmas asks for it, I assume it's still up to the Manager who gets it and she may still prioritise her favourites or am I missing something.

No, you are missing nothing. An employer can dictate when you take your holidays. They can do that anytime. But the point at which to kick up a fuss and involve HR is probably not before you have two years employment. Not that having two years employment means you can have your way over holidays - but it does mean your card is marked and they can dismiss you for pretty much any reason they want.

Poppie68

We never had this issue due to circumstances.... but once our kids were out of school and no longer came on holidays with us I purposely didn't book school summer time holidays, i left them for colleagues with school aged kids, but Easter and Christmas were fair game.....Christmas is a time for family not just kids.

sangie595

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

The 'you' was a general one.

As has been pointed out there could quite easily be a discrimination claim made against the employer for only choosing people with children.

No they couldn't. Having children is not a protected characteristic. The protected characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender Reassignment
• Pregnancy and Maternity
• Marriage and Civil Partnership
• Race
• Religion or belief.
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation

Nothing about having children. You are confusing this with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act which protects the right to family life. It has no application in this context.

TELLIT01

sangie595 wrote: »

I find it perverse that people still think other people having children is a lifestyle choice.

Of course it's a lifestyle choice. People do choose to have children, they aren't found under a gooseberry bush or in the cabbage patch. Not having children may or may not be a lifestyle choice but, to those who don't have kids not by choice, giving holiday priority to those with kids can just be rubbing their noses in it!
Where I work the managers do look back over previous years to see who had what days off over Christmas and will generally prioritise those who didn't have time off last year. On the other hand, at one place I worked, one woman used to book time off around every Bank Holiday, every year, and got away with it because they were flavour of the month with their boss.