Employer refused annual leave

snae

I cannot remember exactly how much time I am allowed for annual leave per year, but I work 16 hours a week over four days as per my contract. A few months ago I was given a "verbal warning" after a tribunal into "unauthorised absences", which were in fact a system which my trade union officer have call "unreasonable" and "discriminatory" due to my disability.

I decided to book the week of my birthday off but my employer refused on the grounds that I have already had too much time off, however I was never made aware that this would have any effect on my holiday.

Where do I stand in this regard?
Should I just keep applying for holiday?
Should I make a complaint?
Should I contact my trade union? (We're not unionised)
What next?

A colleague who has a worse record has already successfully booked off holiday which starts soon.

I am a good while over the "qualifying period", and have "full" employment rights. (More than 2 years employment)

Thanks

prowla

If you have accrued annual leave balance then you can't be refused the right to take it ever.

Your employer can, however, refuse your request to take it at a particular time.

It's unclear, however, whether these "unauthorised absences" were taken as annual leave.

Re. "unauthorised absences", some companies play games with that; recently my son was ill and phoned in when he woke up, but the company expected such calls to be made before a given time, so they deigned to classify it as an unauthorised absence.

Bradden

Not really playing games @prowla If the company policy is that staff must notify employers of absence before or at the start of their shift then failure to do so can be classed as unauthorized absence due to failure to notify. Nothing wrong with that as long as the policy is applied fairly to all staff.
Hwever what they cannot do is class it as unauthorised absence and then deduct it from holiday allowance. If they have deducted holiday they cannot also class it as unauthorised absence. .. this may work in the OP's favour if they've messed up.

prowla

Bradden said:

Not really playing games @prowla If the company policy is that staff must notify employers of absence before or at the start of their shift then failure to do so can be classed as unauthorized absence due to failure to notify. Nothing wrong with that as long as the policy is applied fairly to all staff.
Hwever what they cannot do is class it as unauthorised absence and then deduct it from holiday allowance. If they have deducted holiday they cannot also class it as unauthorised absence. .. this may work in the OP's favour if they've messed up.

To the 1st part, the point I was making is that it's not particularly fair if the person is ill and doesn't wake up until lunchtime. But that's probably an aside in relation to this thread anyway.

Yes, to the 2nd part though; if it's an in-advance request for (accrued) leave then it is a separate matter to the unauthorised absences.

TELLIT01

prowla said:

Yes, to the 2nd part though; if it's an in-advance request for (accrued) leave then it is a separate matter to the unauthorised absences.

They aren't totally separate matters.  If you had unauthorised absence and had been paid for them, there are two ways to deal with the situation.  The company could claw back the payment by reducing the amount paid in subsequent months, or set any future accrued holiday against the excess taken.  It would seem that the company has taken the second option.

As has also been said, an employer doesn't have to agree to a holiday request and can tell any employee when they can have leave.

Jillanddy

As others have said here already, the employer is entitled to refuse to allow you leave when you want it, provided you are able to take all your leave in the leave year. They can, if they wish, tell you exactly when you will take all your leave and give you no choice at all. The right is to have annual leave, not to have it when you want it. 

Based on the little that you have said, your trade union officer seems to be reaching - having a disability doesn't in itself entitle anyone to unauthorised absences or sick leave or whatever it was that you took. If it was so unreasonable and discriminatory, then the union was negligent in not pursuing a case of discrimination. So I suspect it wasn't discriminatory at all. Speaking as a disabled person myself, if I were taking unauthorised time off, or excessive sick leave, I would be getting a hell of a lot more than a verbal warning.

And putting things in "inverted commas" doesn't make them illegitimate or less real. You had a verbal warning for unauthorised absence. That is very real, serious, and you need to take stock because two years employment doesn't prevent a fair dismissal. Where I work, the first stage would be a written warning, and it is "three strikes and you are out" - literally. 

TELLIT01

Jillanddy said:

 Where I work, the first stage would be a written warning, and it is "three strikes and you are out" - literally. 

A close friend of mine has just had a disciplinary process started against them for excessive absence, that is despite that fact that they were injured at work and not through any negligence on their part. 

General_Grant

TELLIT01 said:

prowla said:

Yes, to the 2nd part though; if it's an in-advance request for (accrued) leave then it is a separate matter to the unauthorised absences.

They aren't totally separate matters.  If you had unauthorised absence and had been paid for them, there are two ways to deal with the situation.  The company could claw back the payment by reducing the amount paid in subsequent months, or set any future accrued holiday against the excess taken.  It would seem that the company has taken the second option.

As has also been said, an employer doesn't have to agree to a holiday request and can tell any employee when they can have leave.

I don't think it is for the company to take the option to offset what amounts to an over-payment by deducting time from the holiday entitlement.  They should seek the agreement of the employee that the "unauthorised absence" can be counted as holiday. 

That is because though the employer can tell an employee when they can take leave, they do have to give notice which wouldn't be given if the absence was on the day notified.  The exception would be if the terms of employment already notified to the employee included that unauthorised absence would be treated in this way.

In terms of money received, reducing future pay to recoup over-payment or cutting holiday would make no difference.

Undervalued

TELLIT01 said:

Jillanddy said:

 Where I work, the first stage would be a written warning, and it is "three strikes and you are out" - literally. 

A close friend of mine has just had a disciplinary process started against them for excessive absence, that is despite that fact that they were injured at work and not through any negligence on their part. 

Which can still be perfectly lawful as, legally, they are two separate issues.

If you are injured at work (through no fault of you own) you MAY have a valid claim against the company for damages. If, as a result, you have to take time off either unpaid or at a reduced pay, the damages would normally reflect that. Taken to extreme you may be dismissed in which case, if the employer was responsible for you injury, there would normally be significantly higher damages to compensate. 

The company is legally obliged to be insured against such liabilities but they are not obliged to keep an injured employee on full pay indefinitely if they are not fit enough to work.

getmore4less

Future pay deductions can run into min wage issues.

if the employee is unfit for work then sickness policies come in and there should be no deductions.
 

cr1mson

It is difficult to work out what is going on as it could just be a case that the employer has refused the annual leave at this particular time. If OP had had quite a few days off previously the employer may simply be saying you have had a lot of time off recently so we want you to get a run of work behind you for a variety of entirely valid reasons. So they are not saying no to holiday just no to holiday just now. Really need more info from OP.

And as others have pointed employer can tell you when to take leave.