Compulsory Meeting

TELLIT01

I wonder how the company would handle a situation where somebody has booked and paid for a 2 week holiday, either in the UK or abroad, and the staff member is ordered to attend the meeting? Also, part-time workers who may have a second job and will be working for another employer at the time of this meeting. Add in hospital or doctor's appointments etc. etc.
Either the OP has got it wrong when they say all staff have to attend whether they would be at work or not, or the employer is opening up a potential can of worms.
Before anybody says GP appointments should be arranged out of work hours, I would agree if it wasn't necessary to wait 4 weeks to get a non-urgent appointment with our surgery, and they tell you what appointment time they will give you. There is little negotiation. Cancel the appointment and it will probably be another 4 weeks.....

Undervalued

TELLIT01 wrote: »

I wonder how the company would handle a situation where somebody has booked and paid for a 2 week holiday, either in the UK or abroad, and the staff member is ordered to attend the meeting? Also, part-time workers who may have a second job and will be working for another employer at the time of this meeting. Add in hospital or doctor's appointments etc. etc.
Either the OP has got it wrong when they say all staff have to attend whether they would be at work or not, or the employer is opening up a potential can of worms.
Before anybody says GP appointments should be arranged out of work hours, I would agree if it wasn't necessary to wait 4 weeks to get a non-urgent appointment with our surgery, and they tell you what appointment time they will give you. There is little negotiation. Cancel the appointment and it will probably be another 4 weeks.....

An employee has very limited statutory rights when it comes to holidays. Most "rights" that employee's enjoy in that respect come for employers being more flexible than the law actually requires.

Obviously an employer has to find a balance between the needs of their business whilst still managing to attract and retain suitable staff.

Taken literally, an employer could close for 28 days per year and allow no other time off whatsoever. That would be perfectly lawful!

An employer can also totally dictate when an employee takes their holiday just by giving the minimal notice the law requires. So they could, for example, instruct an employee to take one day (of the employer's choosing) off each week plus two other random days per year to make up the statutory 28 days. Again, perfectly lawful.

In the absence of enhanced contractual rights any employee "booking" holiday does so in the knowledge that the employer can cancel it just by giving the minimum statutory notice (i.e notice equal to the length of the holiday). Again, taken literally, any losses the employee incurs from non refundable fares etc are a risk they take if they make such bookings.

Finally, it is not the employer's problem if an employee finds it difficult to make routine medical appointments outside working hours.

Obviously if an employer chooses to be that restrictive they are likely to struggle to retain decent staff but they are not breaking the law.

Comms69

getmore4less wrote: »

Working time regulations 15.5.

Thanks, that helps

TELLIT01

Undervalued wrote: »

An employee has very limited statutory rights when it comes to holidays. Most "rights" that employee's enjoy in that respect come for employers being more flexible than the law actually requires.

Obviously an employer has to find a balance between the needs of their business whilst still managing to attract and retain suitable staff.

Taken literally, an employer could close for 28 days per year and allow no other time off whatsoever. That would be perfectly lawful!

An employer can also totally dictate when an employee takes their holiday just by giving the minimal notice the law requires. So they could, for example, instruct an employee to take one day (of the employer's choosing) off each week plus two other random days per year to make up the statutory 28 days. Again, perfectly lawful.

In the absence of enhanced contractual rights any employee "booking" holiday does so in the knowledge that the employer can cancel it just by giving the minimum statutory notice (i.e notice equal to the length of the holiday). Again, taken literally, any losses the employee incurs from non refundable fares etc are a risk they take if they make such bookings.

Finally, it is not the employer's problem if an employee finds it difficult to make routine medical appointments outside working hours.

Obviously if an employer chooses to be that restrictive they are likely to struggle to retain decent staff but they are not breaking the law.

I understand all that, I was simply putting forward real world examples of situations where ordering staff to come into work, when they are not due to be in, would be difficult and/or extremely counterproductive.

jessie2017

getmore4less wrote: »

back to the problem.

how much holiday have you booked?
what day is the b'day?
what day is the meeting?

Not sure why this train trip is necessary because of the meeting you would have to have got there anyway.

The meeting will end at about 6pm on a sunday. The birthday is next day. I would normally travel the 100 miles on my motorbike but it'll be too cold on a Sunday evening so I'd have to take the train.

getmore4less

Does everyone work Sundays normally?
Do you work Sundays?
Did you book Sunday off?

The meeting does not clash with the event you are going to.

You had no idea it would not have been too cold during the day.

You could go Monday morning.

You need to get proper bike gear if yours is not upto a low temp.

jessie2017

getmore4less wrote: »

You could go Monday morning.

You need to get proper bike gear if yours is not upto a low temp.

You'd get on well with my manager

getmore4less

Try answering the questions.