Unfair? Business asking employees to buy more holidays

JodieBaker

Hi all,

A friend has contacted me to say the business he works for have asked their employees to buy more holiday allowance (1-2 weeks) to use before March 2021, to support the business through the struggles resulting from the pandemic. In my opinion, this is a way of them getting around “unpaid leave” and it can’t legally be enforced but the worry is if employees refuse, could they risk facing redundancy and if so, is this fair? He has worked from home for them throughout the pandemic and has already been asked to take half of his annual leave entitlement before July, which he’d agreed to. 

Please let me know your thoughts on this and if there are any legalities to support either way! 

Thank you 

Jeremy535897

Buy with what?

sharpe106

Some companies allow you to buy so call extra leave, basically unpaid leave so they can do that, but the forced part would not be legal. 

JodieBaker

With their own money, so the employee would pay the business whatever their wages would be for the 2 weeks, usually deducted in parts from their monthly wage. Then when the employee takes this annual leave it’s paid back from the business as holiday pay. 

JCS1

We can buy up to 5 days per year, and then your salary is reduced over the course of the year

Waxy666

Lots of businesses are struggling at the moment and don't have enough work to keep their full staff busy.  The fact your friend's business is being open and trying to work with their employees to manage the situation should be taken as a positive.  The extra bought holiday approach spreads the burden across all staff, reduces the cash cost on the business and allows the business to run with slightly lower headcount for a period of time without losing staff permanently.  It's presumably voluntary (can't see how it would be enforceable as mandatory).

Think about the other alternatives though - if there isn't enough work for the full staff / full time the business has to do something, and that would be:
- unpaid leave / sabbaticals (probably optional)
- HR consultation to enforce move to part time working (with pro-rata salary and benefits)
- redundancies - by law it is the role which is made redundant (not the person).  Where there are several people doing the same / similar roles and the staff members at risk are considered against criteria of job skills, performance reviews etc.  The key criteria for selecting which person is made redundant can't legally be "did they agree to buy extra holiday when we asked?"

Businesses need to be sympathetic and supportive to staff, but at the end of the day they have to be commercial as well.  With limited work and under cash pressure asking staff if they are willing to buy some extra holiday and take time off over the next 9 months feels like the lesser of the evils to me.

Thrugelmir

JodieBaker said:

 In my opinion, this is a way of them getting around “unpaid leave” and it can’t legally be enforced but the worry is if employees refuse, could they risk facing redundancy and if so, is this fair? 

Sounds as if the employer has no wish to make anyone redundant. Though if employees are unwilling to help their employer through this challenging period. What's the alternative? There are no easy answers to the challenges that lie ahead. Has nothing to do with fairness either. Survival isn't a party game. 

JodieBaker

Thank you all. I completely understand that it’s about helping each other, the employee supports the business and in return has some job security. My friend understands too which is why he already agreed to take half of his holiday entitlement before July and I have done the same for the business I work with even though (pre-lockdown) I was saving them for events later in the year. 

It just didn’t seem fair initially that, at this time, the employee is essentially taking unpaid leave for up to two weeks and missing out on what could be vital pay for them. Maybe the business would reconsider if the employee was in financial difficulty themselves but at the moment it has been a blanket request for all employees. Like you say @Waxy666 I suppose it’s the lesser of two evils and we have to compare it to the alternative routes!  Thanks again for your thoughts. 

sharpe106

If the company are struggling and the choice is that or redundancies I think the company are being fair. Although the other way to look at it, is that if they are struggling that much the chances are redundancies are going to be on the cards anyway. 

Dr_Crypto

sharpe106 said:

Some companies allow you to buy so call extra leave, basically unpaid leave so they can do that, but the forced part would not be legal. 

Why would it be illegal? BA are doing it with their pilots and I think Virgin Atlantic too. 

Jeremy535897

If they have asked employees to buy it, and if employees can refuse, there isn't a question of legality. If they simply deduct money from your wages to pay for it without your agreement, I think that would be an unlawful deduction from wages. It would seem more straightforward just to agree to take an extra 1 or 2 weeks as unpaid leave.