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Employer automatically booked my holidays

Elemonator

Hi guys, first off can I say I am not looking for legal advice but just general advice. Feel free to point me in the direction of other sources also from which I can draw my own conclusions.

I work a small retail job to support my college. I had a decent amount of holiday time accrued which I intended to use to cover my Christmas study period and exam time for my last year of college. Today I received an email from my employer stating that per previous correspondence, they had taken 75pc of my holiday leave and booked for me, with two weeks in October and one week in November. Is this common or accepted?

I am now left with not enough time to cover my exam and study periods. The previous correspondence they say they sent would have informed me that this was going to happen. I did not receive this email.

It seems to be this is beyond unreasonable. I received no consultation and I never received notice that this was going to happen. We have no point of contact to resolve these problems with the exception of the store manager. I have arrived at the conclusion that I am going to ask them for a send/received/read of the the email they sent previous explaining this would happen and a copy of the email and explain my situation regarding exams and that I will be taking that time off.

Any suggestions?

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Love2love

Elemonator wrote: »

Hi guys, first off can I say I am not looking for legal advice but just general advice. Feel free to point me in the direction of other sources also from which I can draw my own conclusions.

I work a small retail job to support my college. I had a decent amount of holiday time accrued which I intended to use to cover my Christmas study period and exam time for my last year of college. Today I received an email from my employer stating that per previous correspondence, they had taken 75pc of my holiday leave and booked for me, with two weeks in October and one week in November. Is this common or accepted?

I am now left with not enough time to cover my exam and study periods. The previous correspondence they say they sent would have informed me that this was going to happen. I did not receive this email.

It seems to be this is beyond unreasonable. I received no consultation and I never received notice that this was going to happen. We have no point of contact to resolve these problems with the exception of the store manager. I have arrived at the conclusion that I am going to ask them for a send/received/read of the the email they sent previous explaining this would happen and a copy of the email and explain my situation regarding exams and that I will be taking that time off.

Any suggestions?

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. In addition, annual leave should be taken within the appropriate leave year or with your consent, within 6 months of the relevant leave year. Further holding over (also known as carrying-over) of annual leave at your wish is a matter for agreement between you and your employer.

CircleofLife

You could check your contract to see if there is any mention of study leave being allowed (separate to annual).

Sir Ophiuchus

Elemonator wrote: »

Today I received an email from my employer stating that per previous correspondence, they had taken 75pc of my holiday leave and booked for me, with two weeks in October and one week in November.

Obvious question: did you or they actually suggest that in email, or are they referring to correspondence that doesn't exist or that they're misinterpreting?

Elemonator

Love2love wrote: »

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. In addition, annual leave should be taken within the appropriate leave year or with your consent, within 6 months of the relevant leave year. Further holding over (also known as carrying-over) of annual leave at your wish is a matter for agreement between you and your employer.

Thanks for all the replies. I was aware they could do this but we received no consultation or even notice that this was going to happen.

CircleofLife wrote: »

You could check your contract to see if there is any mention of study leave being allowed (separate to annual).

No mention!

Sir Ophiuchus wrote: »

Obvious question: did you or they actually suggest that in email, or are they referring to correspondence that doesn't exist or that they're misinterpreting?

That is pretty much word for word the email I received today. They claimed they sent me an email recently to book 75pc of my holidays by the end of June 2018 or they would automatically book me in. I didn't receive the email so I didn't even know and today received the email which claimed they had and they had completed the booking.

davo10

Firstly, as stated above, annual leave periods are at the discretion of your employer. They can, with sufficient notice (which in this case is 4 months) require you to take your accrued leave during certain periods, study time would not count under the specified considerations. Also, an employer must ensure that accrued leave entitlement is taken before the end of the relevant year. In addition, most retailers will stipulate that leave cannot be taken during busy periods, Christmas tends to be the busiest. So, your employer is ensuring that accrued leave is taken before year end as you would probably not be allowed to take it at Christmas. Nothing whatsoever illegal about this.

Batgurl

This may sound crazy but have you considered messaging them, explaining the situation and asking them to change your leave to the period you require?

The only issue I think you may have is if it runs into the actual Christmas period of December/January, most retailers ban all leave during this time so I can’t see an exception being made for you.

Diceicle

Did you clear or flag the intention / desire to take the leave over the xmas period?
If they sent you an email surely they can provide that.....either way they still have plenty of time to issue notice which would come to the same holiday-situation.

SusieBlue

Batgurl wrote: »

The only issue I think you may have is if it runs into the actual Christmas period of December/January, most retailers ban all leave during this time so I can’t see an exception being made for you.

This is what I was going to say.
In any retail/hospitality job I've ever had, annual leave was extremely limited during the Christmas period.
Seeing as a lot of staff are young and in college, they wouldn't be able to cater to everyones exam timetable, so in general, annual leave can't be taken during those periods, out of fairness. And also because its the busiest time of year for trade.
I remember one girl I worked with struggled to get a day off for her sisters wedding!

So while I can see your point and how unfair it is, it really is at the discretion of the employer and it wouldn't be uncommon for employers in this sector to have similar restrictions, regardless of study/exam requirements of the employees.

Glass fused light

This is not uncommon and as the financial accountants now have to do a report/calculation on holidays and outstanding money it will become more common that this will be flagged earlier in the year and discussions will be had with HR to manage hoilday scheduling.

Unfortunately as its in retail, the busy period is normaly the run up to the Christmas period. Add in the move for starting late opening eirlier will mean that the management will need a full complement of staff to choose from to cover all the open periods. Ask if you could be scheduled on late openings etc., if not now is the time to start looking for a new job that will meet your study / work life balance.