Forced annual leave?

heyho

Hi, started a new job a couple of months ago and I've just been informed that the company closes over Christmas so I must take 4 days out of my annual leave because of this.

I don't have a contract (long story, they are useless at anything HR/ Admin related) so I was not aware of this requirement before starting work. I'd prefer not to use 4 days of my precious 20 days - can they force me to take the time off? What if I was Jewish or Muslim and didn't celebrate Christmas? Seems a bit unenforceable to me! Is this legal?

godtabh

Its that or be let go

stargazer 68

Our company does it too. I asked here on boards a few years ago and its standard in a lot of places seemingly

heyho

Ok thanks, I can't find anything online about the legality of it and I've never worked in a company that enforced a rule like that before.

La_Gordy

Yea i worked in a financial place that had MTA - Mandatory Time Off. This meant that lets say you had 20 holidays, you had to take 7 of them consecutively. It was a pain in the hole but seems to be industry dependent.

Clearlier

heyho wrote: »

Is this legal?

Yes. Although it can be a PITA it's far from unheard of.

28064212

From the Citizen's Information website

It is for your employer to decide when annual leave may be taken, but this is subject to a number of conditions. Your employer must take into account your family responsibilities, opportunities for rest and recreation that are available to you and to consult with you (or your union) at least one month before the leave is to be taken.

runawaybishop

heyho wrote: »

Hi, started a new job a couple of months ago and I've just been informed that the company closes over Christmas so I must take 4 days out of my annual leave because of this.

I don't have a contract (long story, they are useless at anything HR/ Admin related) so I was not aware of this requirement before starting work. I'd prefer not to use 4 days of my precious 20 days - can they force me to take the time off? What if I was Jewish or Muslim and didn't celebrate Christmas? Seems a bit unenforceable to me! Is this legal?

Both legal and extremely common.

Sunny Dayz

This has been pretty standard in most places I have worked. While you may give out about having to take 4 days precious annual leave, between the various public holidays and weekends at that time of the year, you usually end up with a week and half to two weeks off work.


It's the first thing I look at when I got back to work in Jan - when is Christmas falling and how many days to I need? I block off those days straight away and then I know how many days I really have to play around with for the year.

Triceratops Ballet

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

It's the first thing I look at when I got back to work in Jan - when is Christmas falling and how many days to I need? I block off those days straight away and then I know how many days I really have to play around with for the year.

I do this too!

Aside from retail jobs when I was in college where you hadn't a snowballs chance of getting time off over Christmas, I've never worked anywhere that didn't require me to take 3 or so days off while the office closed over Christmas.

jon1981

Same rule in my place too and and of my previous companies.

Lux23

Yea, you will find some smaller companies that don't bother to open over Christmas will allow you to keep your full holiday entitlement but it would probably cost the big ones too much.

ongarboy

La_Gordy wrote: »

Yea i worked in a financial place that had MTA - Mandatory Time Off. This meant that lets say you had 20 holidays, you had to take 7 of them consecutively. It was a pain in the hole but seems to be industry dependent.

Whatever about mandatory holidays at Christmas, 7 or often 10 consecutive days annual leave is mandatory in a lot of financial service organisations. This is the prevent potential fraud opportunities and enables the persons who take over your job while you're on leave to have adequate time to identify any potential inconsistencies should the absentee have been engaged in fraud (eg reconciling money transactions etc). The opportunity to identify same would not be as easy if the potential fraudster was only taking a day here and there throughout the year (which is how many frauds were successfully carried out prior to such mandatory leave directives).

skallywag

Is there any reasonable way that you would be able to work productively without the other employees? We have also implemented such a rule where I work from time to time, but we would also still allow employees to work if they could argue a case for it.

Milly33

Sorry to say but it is fairly standard practice so it is..You could say it to them that you would prefer to work but if the office is closed its closed

enda1

Good luck if you ever work in certain continental countries where you might easily find 3 or 4 weeks stipulated with little flexibility.

pow wow

As everyone said, it's pretty standard. I have an atheist on my team who fights me on it every year, but the company position is that the company is closed for those days in December, and as such no staff can attend work. Also it's important to the company that employees have at least one extended break during the year where they can fully wind down and recharge their batteries, etc etc.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Anybody from the Galway would remember when the whole city , except for hospitality, closed for race week :-) Some still do.

In the manufacturing industry where it is not practical to cover employees leave over all the summer months as the employees have specialist skills it is not uncommon to nominate holidays.

On the + side booking that summer break is easy in the Jan sales as you're dates are locked in and you don't have to haggle for the dates you want.

Mrs OBumble

Ahh, the phrase "builders holiday" might also ring some bells. As does "school holidays" if you're a teacher, SNA or support staff.