New employer has rejected holiday

RichardD1970

Undervalued wrote: »

Taken literally, it is perfectly lawful for an employer to close for 28 days per year and insist that all employees take their holiday then and at no other time!

I agree as well.

Our company tells me and its 20,000+ other employees when to have all our holiday except for 1 week, which we can book as we like (first come, first served), as long as no more than 2 people are off on each section.

As for the cancelling of leave already requested and agreed, unless things have changed, then I think it used to be only notice of twice the requested leave, ie if you've requested 1 week they only have to give 2 weeks notice to cancel.

Savvy_Sue

TyreLever wrote: »

Says it all as to what this company is like to work for.

Actually it says absolutely nothing about the company is like to work for!

[Deleted User]

It's all if your face fits I suppose.

I have known someone walk in, request to leave early on very first day, then slap in a holiday request form for the forbidden Xmas - seemed it was something agreed to at time of job offer. (It would have been funny if they were not replacing someone let go because of holiday issues...) bad news they are still working there now I believe.

Nonetheless I got my holiday sorted - as it turned out the present company prefer people to have that in case they need to leave quickly/aren't working out so to only physically work 48 hours of notice is brilliant. ..the exit interview very short and sweet let's say.

TELLIT01

Deleted%20User wrote: »

I have known someone walk in, request to leave early on very first day, then slap in a holiday request form for the forbidden Xmas - seemed it was something agreed to at time of job offer.

The big difference between this and the OP is that the OP didn't mention it at interview, let alone get it agreed.

getmore4less

LittleVoice wrote: »

Given that employers are able even to cancel holiday they have agreed to as long as they give the necessary notice, I wonder where you are finding proof of this legal requirement to honour prebooked holidays?

if you make the holiday a condition of acceptance that would override the statutory notice options in the employment act and override any contractual holiday policy for that particular holiday unless the employer objected it would form part of the contract.

Notifying the employer at any point during the process that you are taking the holiday may be sufficient to make that a contractual obligation but best to make it clear in writing an acceptance letter is a good place.

Savvy_Sue

Just as an example of how it can be done, we recently appointed someone who wanted to take several days' holiday within the first month. Obviously that's less than ideal, but by asking about it at interview we knew they wanted to do that. So we started them a week earlier than intended so they'd get a decent handover, and discussed with them whether they wanted to take unpaid leave or have it taken off their leave entitlement.

The alternative, if we'd wanted to do without the handover period, would have been to start them AFTER they'd had their odd bits of holiday.

The absolute nightmare would have been for them to turn up on the first day and ask to book several days' leave in the first month ...

cadon

Well, the two obvious questions are why did the OP's wife want the time off and why did the employer say no? If it's always going to be a time of year where the company is busy and that the OP's wife always wants off, there is a problem. However, if there is an unexpected staff shortage this year and/or the OP's wife just happened to choose an inconvenient time to book a holiday, it's a problem that doesn't necessarily reoccur.

In my line of work and at my level, it would't be normal to take a whole lot of leave in December. It would be assumed in any interview that all parties understood this, so if a potential employee wanted the time off for any reason, they would have to make that very clear, and the request might still not be granted.

Savvy_Sue

cadon wrote: »

Well, the two obvious questions are why did the OP's wife want the time off and why did the employer say no?

The OP's wife wanted the time off because they'd booked a holiday BEFORE she started the new job. We have no idea why the employer said no.

cadon wrote: »

In my line of work and at my level, it would't be normal to take a whole lot of leave in December. It would be assumed in any interview that all parties understood this, so if a potential employee wanted the time off for any reason, they would have to make that very clear, and the request might still not be granted.

Yup, but we don't know what line of work this is - there are some lines of work where I think most people wouldn't EXPECT to be able to take leave then, eg retail.

And I think most of us are in agreement, that if you'd actually booked a holiday, you'd discuss it at or after interview, BEFORE your first day, and get it agreed before starting. And if it was me, I'd do that whether I was a senior member of staff or the office tealady.

CCFC_80

I disagree with most of the replies in this whole thread. Why should the OP have mentioned about her booked holiday in the interview. Shouldn't the incompetent interviewers have mentioned it . I notice not many people are blaming them for not asking a bog standard job interview question.Why volunteer information at an interview that is going to jeopardise yoru chances of getting the job. Perhaps she should have mentioned also about all those days she was off throwing sickies or that disciplinery she faced where she last worked.

Trina90

BabyDoll wrote: »

Bit cheeky asking for a holiday on a new job lol

Really?
Where I work new employees are asked what holiday they already had and that is immediately respected. I must work for a really good company then!