Annual leave already used but needed for Christmas shutdown

NoAngel

So, my employer enforces annual leave use over Christmas as the company closes down. This is usually 5 days of annual leave and the 3 bank holidays. This year they forgot to take this automatically out of our annual leave entitlement. So now many people have used up their annual leave but there isn’t enough left to cover the Christmas shut down. Can anybody advise where the employer and employees stand here please?

Brynsam

Depends what your contract says - that's always the starting point. Please could you quote/clarify?

Unlikely that the company can insist everyone takes unpaid leave while the company is shut over Christmas, but again depends on what the contract says/whether people knew they would have to take leave then but still merrily went on booking holiday. Even so, the company may have trouble if they try to enforce that.

I'd give the ACAS helpline a ring.

shortcrust

It’s difficult to believe that you didn’t all know what had happened. At least a few people would have noticed straight away and said “hey how much leave have you got?!” and so on.

[Deleted User]

A few weeks ago someone considered taking me on for 15k and they said I could have Xmas shutdown off unpaid even if it come to it. (they did ask my age rather informally before I went in for interview).

comedyseeker123

Company dictates when you take holidays

NoAngel

comedyseeker123 wrote: »

Company dictates when you take holidays

Yeah but can they enforce unpaid leave over Christmas? Or can they cancel leave we already have booked to allow for paid leave over Christmas? What should they do?

KiKi

It's an error, but at the end of the day, as long as you're getting your required holiday then the way forward is a pragmatic one. There is nothing in law to say 'X has to happen'.

If I were dealing with this, I'd offer for people to take AL from next year's allocation, take unpaid leave, or cancel some of the leave they have booked and use it for Christmas. Your company could choose to do any of these things if people aren't willing to forfeit AL that's already booked but not yet taken. There's no set approach for situations like this.

Also: no-one - not one person in the whole organisation - spotted that they had too much AL left? You all know this is what happens - you all know that 5 days should go to the Christmas shutdown - and none of you realised you were getting an extra week to book?! Don't believe that for a second! It's a two way street here. You know you need to use AL for Christmas, you didn't check because it's usually taken automatically.

If employees and the company can work together, a pragmatic solution can be found.

KatrinaWaves

Deleted%20User wrote: »

A few weeks ago someone considered taking me on for 15k and they said I could have Xmas shutdown off unpaid even if it come to it. (they did ask my age rather informally before I went in for interview).

And the relevance of this is?

Or is this yet another of your posts where every situation has happened to you?!

Xbigman

Just to be clear, its the employee's that have made the mistake. Even if the employer usually does it for them they don't have too.
Unless you have some specific clause in your contract of employment that says differently the employer can sort this out anyway they like. Cancel other booked holidays, allow overtime to make up the hours or take it unpaid are obvious possibilities. What happens next depends on how reasonable the employer wants to be. Start negotiating.



Darren

prowla

The employer has made a mistake in approving the leave.

JReacher1

It will be unpaid leave for everyone who has used their holiday allowance.

There is no chance that people who used up their holiday allowance didn’t know what they were doing.