Can my place of work force me to take holidays?

sararichardson123

Hi, my place of work are stating that we must use majority of our annual leave by June and only be left with a maximum of 10 days July-December? I have 5 weeks which means I have to take 3 weeks during the Covid 19 shutdown. We have a contract to complete which runs April 2020-March 2021 and they are saying that in order to hit our targets we must take our annual leave prior to avoid many people being off when we are back at work? Is this legal? Not sure where i stand on this. Also if I was to be furloughed can you be forced to take holdiays?

Many thanks in advance for anyones help or advice

p00hsticks

Yes, your employer can tell you to take your annual leave, although they have to give you twice as much notice as the amount of holiday they are asking you to take - so for example, if they want you to take a weeks holiday in one go, they need to give you two weeks notice, if they want you to take a days holiday they should give you two days notice.

https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/using-holiday

calcotti

An employer can require you to take holiday but are supposed to give you notice of twice the length of holiday they wish you to take. If they want you to three weeks the year should give you six weeks notice.

The practical question you have to ask is how much you want to argue with your employer at the present time.

i am assuming they will be paying you 100% of your wages while you are on holiday.

sharpe106

sararichardson123 said:

Also if I was to be furloughed can you be forced to take holdiays?

For the period of time that they are claiming the furlough for then you can’t be forced to take holidays, but they can stop claiming it and make you take holidays and then put you back on it again if needed.