annual holiday

traybonoaholly

Hi there.
can i ask is it ok for an employer to suddenly say to staff that nobody is allowed to book any holiday for the next 3 months as the budget is low and so not able to cover costs of people being off work.
i work in retail and in our contract it states holidays should be split over the year march-april. it also says that holidays may be denied during busy times of easter and christmas, it states no other times.
we work in a place where only so many staff can be off at any one time. however the calender is not fully booked our manager is just saying we cant take any holiday until after xmas so for the next 3 months. This will cause alot of annoyance as it not justified. It then means all staff will be then fighting to take their holiday between jan-end of march. but as so many people will still have holiday left to ise they wont be able to as he will deny it as too many people would be off. theres no way 30 staff can all take 2 weeks in the space of 3 months as hed never allow that. so in the end he will say no this side of xmas and then no after xmas. this is seeming really unfair. is this legal. it hasnt come from hr it has come from our mnager himself

[Deleted User]

Best your colleagues all group together on this one. Honestly People Power! This happened in our dept recently when we all wanted phone headsets on our desk, we got there in the end 5 against 1 took a few convo's but we got there because we all felt same.

I remember couple of years ago when a colleague was let go because her holiday had to be denied yeah for 5 days which had been double booked we watched someone go out the door - the gov ending up having to allow her time off to go to other interviews. Just imagine a group of people doing this!

Hoping your colleagues feel as strongly as you do x

agrinnall

Yes, your employer can say when holidays can be taken, it doesn't have to be in your contract. But they can't prevent them being taken altogether, so you really need to discuss with your manager when you will all be able to take your remaining holidays.

getmore4less

. theres no way 30 staff can all take 2 weeks in the space of 3 months as hed never allow that.

do the numbers and ask them how they will meet their legal obligations to allow people to take their holiday.

get them to put a holiday plan in place from now for the rest of the holiday year.

Also point out that financial difficulties are actually made worse by having people come into work and get paid as they still have to be paid for the holiday.

By having people take holiday you reduce your financial liabilities.

The competence of the manager is suspect they need more training if they don't do something to plan the holidays for the year and just want to create a back up of holidays and do the you cant take them escalate before it is too late

The fall back for the employee is they resign so they terminate before the end of the holiday year and then they get the holiday paid.

mass resignation in the NY will draw attention to the problem if not fixed..

theoretica

As the poster above says, ask to sort out now a holiday plan for the rest of the leave year. Might help the manager see the problems you see.

It is the issue Ryanair are facing, which might mean more awareness of it, and how serious it is.

JReacher1

In fairness your contract says holidays may be denied during the busy period of Christmas and Easter. For retail we are now entering the Christmas trading season and although early, October to December could be considered the Christmas shopping season.

martinsurrey

getmore4less wrote: »

Also point out that financial difficulties are actually made worse by having people come into work and get paid as they still have to be paid for the holiday.

That is wrong.

it doesnt matter when a FT employee takes holiday as they are paid regardless,

BUT in retail they often fill the missing FT employees shift with a zero hours contract workers.

If there are no holidays they are only paying the FT employee, but for the weeks they offer Zero hour contract shifts they effectively pay 2 people, the person on holiday and the cover.

This kicks the cover cost can down the road in to the next budget year for the store.

getmore4less

martinsurrey wrote: »

That is wrong.

it doesnt matter when a FT employee takes holiday as they are paid regardless,

BUT in retail they often fill the missing FT employees shift with a zero hours contract workers.

If there are no holidays they are only paying the FT employee, but for the weeks they offer Zero hour contract shifts they effectively pay 2 people, the person on holiday and the cover.

This kicks the cover cost can down the road in to the next budget year for the store.

Not if you meet your obligation to let the FT take the holiday and the holiday and financial year align only works if the holiday year ends after the financial year and there is a window to take the holiday and use cover.

If money is short you need to employ people for fewer hours and use up the holiday liability.

traybonoaholly

Our contract doesn't say specifically run up to Christmas it says holidays should not be taken during December and easter week only

getmore4less

As well as pointing out the flaws in the proposal get all your holidays booked for the rest of the holiday year so you have evidence that if you can't take them it is the company stopping you, they then can't use the use or loose because you never asked to take them.