Work trying to bully me into cancelling holiday

[worridmum]

Sorry if this is the wrong place but this section has the most traffic and hoping for someone to help me.

Long story short is a booked my annaul leave in january in line with company policy and it was approved. After the approval I booked an expesive holiday to the USA for 3 weeks to see my parents as my father is in poor health and would like to see him before he deterates futher (long term problem with no possiblity of a cure sadly).

Now the crux of the problem last week my work colleuge is now wanting to start her metinity leave 2 months early than planned and now because our department is small one of us must be in the building for the department to run (I dont want to give too much details here as its very specislt field of work and dont want to out myself) and the meritity cover cannot start 2 months early than planned so my boss is putting large amounts of pressure to cancel my holiday and treating gross misconduct when I refused to cancel it as my manager blunty said when I asked is the company going to compestate for my finacel loss (non-refundable flights / hotel deposits etc) and she basically said tough luck the company WILL NOT pay for the loss of this money (roughly £3000) and I should just absorb this loss and consider it one of those things, which I replied no I am not willing to lose not only my last possible chance of seeing my Father before he passes away but also that amount of money which is a large amount for me.

Which is the reason she is quoting gross misconduct as I am refusing to cancel my holiday with only 2 weeks notice and that I am expected to eat the fiancal loss as well as prescous time with my father and my question is twofold

I am unreasonable to refuse to NOT cancel my holiday no matter that it will causes massive problems for the company and the second are they legally allowed to breech their own policies relating to booked holidays to be able to say my holiday will be treated as unauthrised absance and thus a gross misconduct offence even though I have all the documents saying it was authorised etc and finally if they are allowed to cancel my holiday at such short notice can force them to pay for my lost money so I am not out of pocket (travel insurnce will not pay out as it is not covered by their terms)

I am sorry for the long post and if it is in the wrong area and for any spelling or grammer mistakes as I have dylexia and no spell checker on this device.

I agree with the others, this thread needs to disappear - now.

Great update.

Hope you don't mind, but I reported the thread saying it needs to be deleted.

Well done OP! Good on you for standing up for yourself and not letting them bully you

Brilliant news OP. Shame this thread has to be deleted as it is inspiring.

I just read this through. Gobsmacked!

Bloody well done OP. But I agree, get it deleted ASAP.

Well done OP. what happens about your legal fees?

delighted that it's worked out -that's a brilliant settlement with which to start afresh somewhere else. thanks for the update. please get the thread deleted asap in case it scuppers everything - you can get mnhq to put that there was a happy resolution in the deletion message.

Excellent news op. Just wanted to say that before this thread gets deleted as it now should. Xxx

Sounds like a good offer. See if the wording of the reference can be agreed now. A friend of mine was being made redundant, she actually wrote her own reference so that she was happy with it.

Great outcome!

So glad you had a good holiday and fingers crossed they stick to their word x

Woohoo!

Glad it's worked out for you!
Now, onward and upward.
Good news about your dad too.

Thanks for the update op. I have no experience of this sort of thing but the settlement sounds good to me. Good luck for the future! (And delete this thread)

Only just read this with a face most of the way through! Good luck op with your future & please please MN delete this thread!

I don't get why everyone is insisting the thread is deleted?

Have been lurking all the way through. Glad it's worked out OP

Glad this has been resolved, what a bunch of idiots, hope you find something with a decent company

This is fantastic news OP, brilliant result.

It is stressing me out that thread is still here due to conditions on settlement, delete it quickly!

MostlyMama, I guess the calls for deletion relate to the 'gagging' condition in the offer. Anyone connected with the OP, whether in the workplace or a malicious friend, could easiy identify the OP and spill the beans to the media who would then harass the OP and print details, negating the offer.

I agree with others - take it and delete the thread! Great news :)

Make sure the agreement is written so that "don't go to the media" specifically starts from the date you sign it.

You don't want them to start arguing this thread constitutes "going to to the media" (if it somehow hangs around or people remember it) and claiming you've breached the contract.

For the same reason, perhaps copy off the thread before deletion? In case you have to prove dates? Sounds extreme, but...

To be fair, the company is not identifiable to anyone outside of it and who doesn't know the details of your case already.

Before this disappears, did you discover what happened after you left? They must have been a bit stuffed with you gone and your colleague on maternity leave?

Great result, I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when their lawyer realised just how unlawfully they'd been behaving and how careless they'd been about leaving evidence and then trying to destroy it. And even more when he told them they were bound to lose if you claimed.