is it legal for companies to dictate your annual leave to you, and tell you when you will be off?

[Whiteandbrownrabbit]

wanted to ppost this for a relative that says she gets only 4 weeks leave, no bank holidays and those four weeks she is told when she will be having them
ed she wants a fortnight in aug and a week at easter and end of sept

but gets told your holidays are april june oct and nov
so not even spaced out

is this even legal

I thought it was probably against her human rights or something

What does her contract say??? Companies can implement rules, ie 4 days to be taken at christmas as office closed etc.

Not sure about the bank holidays but yes companies can tell employees when their leave is. Most factories will have a shut down period at some stage during the year and this is when staff are on leave.

Yes they can. But she should be getting 5.6 weeks leave per year or the equivalent if she works part time.

Mine are set out for me- but I'm a teacher! My step dad had some holiday time set out as the whole industry closed at Christmas, not sure about all holidays being dictated though.
Not much help- sorry.

Completely legal unfortunately.

The employer must give notice of when they want employee to take the holiday. I think it's 2 weeks notice for every week.

Yes. You don't have a human right to choose when an employer offers annual leave.

people say 4 weeks because that is 28 days - it is actually 5.6 working weeks

Legally she should receive 28 days annual leave, usually companies use the bank holidays as the 8 days and then four weeks. Yes they can as long as stated in their contract, we have mandatory shut down periods so a large portion of our annual leave is used up by them

I met a swim instructor on holiday last year. He said he can only take al in august due to training schedules. He has the whole of august off.!

Bank holidays don't have to be included in the 5.6 weeks annual leave. Her employer can tell her when to take her leave according to the needs of the business.

www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/entitlement

Her employer can tell you when to take her holiday (my employer does for operational roles and my hudband's office closes at Christmas so he has to take holiday then) but 20 days including bank holidays is not enough if she's working full time.

What does it say in her contract?
There is no legal entitlement to bank holidays but if she works full time she should get 5.6 weeks, which is 28 days
If she is part time she will get less
Has she just started and those are the only days available?
What does her handbook say about annual leave?

Many companies allow staff some choice in when they take holiday, but the legal position is that they can tell you when to take holiday, as long as they give notice of twice as long as the holiday they want you to take. Similarly, they can cancel previously agreed leave as long as they give notice of twice as long as the leave they are cancelling.

www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/booking-time-off-

Has she been there long? Surely she knows whether this is in her contract or not?

Lots of companies enforce at least some holidays, because they will shut down at certain points of the year.

she has the human right to leave and look for a job with holiday dates that suit her though :)

As said above completely legal, depends on industry, some jobs involving tourism might dictate all a/l is taken in February or November, others might say no a/l in school holidays, others like accountants no a/l in 4 weeks to April 5th.

Others are completely flexible others have rule only 1 member of staff on a/l at any given time very common in small businesses this is our rule at dental practice.

However if business is slow someone could say on Tuesday you need to take Friday as a/l

It's completely legal. It doesn't even need to be stated in contracts. They requirement is that people get the right amount of holiday no that they get to choose when to take it.

As long as the employer gives notice that is double the amount of leave they want people to take then it's perfectly acceptable.

As above, as long as it is stated in her contract. Most nanny contracts, for example, say something like half the leave is the employer's choice of time and half the nanny chooses.

I have a couple of friends who are bus drivers, and their holidays are completely dictated by their employer as otherwise there could be problems in running the service properly - yes this is in their contract. However they do have the option to swap shifts with each other most of the time.

Since when have employees been getting 28 days leave, I always thought it was 20.

Minimum has been 5.6 weeks or 28 days for some time now.

Yes it is normal in some industries, my DP gets five weeks a year that are set for him, he can only change them if someone is willing to swop. He also has 7 floating days that he can take any time if there is a vacancy. The joys of working in the transport industry.

20 days PLUS bank hols Eggynuff. If they have to work Bank Hols, they get a day off in lieu

I'd have thought it would be in the contract. DF used to be in the Forces and there were certain dates he had to take leave - or he had to be there for.

Ah I see, thank you.