AIBU to refuse to take annual leave?

[Toddlerteaplease]

I'm a paediatric nurse. We have hardly any patients as all our elective surgery has been cancelled. The whole unit is the same. We are being told to take tine owing or annual leave. I don't have any time owing and I don't want to use up my annual leave as it's got to last a year. Can we be forced to take it? I live on my own, so finding the isolation tough going and work was saving my sanity.

Cant offer any direct advice, but are you in a union?
They will be your best support initially.

Can you offer to move to work elsewhere in the department/hospital

No, they can’t make you take it. Assuming you are NHS and your leave starts again 1st April? In that case, they can suggest it but can’t force you.

I can't go to adults as I'm not adult trained. And the rest of the children's hospital is just the same. For the first time ever, We are over staffed. I'm in a union so will see what they say.

We are being told to take tine owing or annual leave. There was somethig in the CV news yesterday about NHS workers having their annual leave rules relaxed, so you can carry over the days...

Here you go, government website

www.gov.uk/government/news/rules-on-carrying-over-annual-leave-to-be-relaxed-to-support-key-industries-during-covid-19

Hope you can sort something out but legally yes, you can be made to take annual leave. Employers must give notice of enforced annual leave that is at least twice as long as the amount of leave that they want you to take e.g. one week annual leave needs two weeks notice that you must take it.

Don’t think they can force you but l know they will often try

Even if you aren’t adult trained you still have skills, doing obs , making up IVs. I am shocked an nhs trust is sending you home when we need every hand on deck

Why can't they deploy you elsewhere? My friend is a speech therapist and is emptying bedpans instead of her normal work. As a paediatric nurse they will have things you can do

They can't make you take annual leave. In our department (not paeds) we are looking at redeployment. Our skills aren't really transferable, but we have some skills such as cannulation or admin that may be of use elsewhere

I'm pretty shocked too, here you would be redeployed, even if it meant working below your banding. Even I (non clinical) am being sent on a patient handling course so I could help out on wards if needed.

It depends if they allow leave to be carried over or if you lose your allowance if you do not take it by the end of the holiday year.

They’ve just said you can carry it over for two years.

We have hardly any patients as all our elective surgery has been cancelled. The whole unit is the same.

Then I would offer my services for obs and other basic duties where required in the hospital

I think if you're refusing to take annual leave... Then you have to expect to be redeployed, and just because you are peads trained absolutely does not mean you can't help in an adult environment.

Every nurse has a skill set, basic nursing care, obs, drawing up ivs.

The NHS is in a state of emergency, a global pandemic.

I know id rather take annual leave and be safe at home with my boys but that's your choice.

I would hope you would be reassigned elsewhere but if not and you have to take the leave you could maybe volunteer to help you cope. Pharmacies would definitely appreciate the help! Hope your skills are appreciated and that you can be assigned another ward to support on though.

I have NHS physios and dentists in my family who are all being redeployed. I don't understand why you are not.

It makes sense for staff to take some of their annual leave if there isn't much to do. Will you be asking to take your leave when it gets busy?

I was a manger in a hotel. I would often need staff to take AL during quiet times. I could allocate 13 days a year per staff member, this was written into the contracts.

My ward is closed as we have no pap and the ward we are merged with only has four. All this NHS hero's and free stuff is really embarrassing, because we are sat on our bums painting rainbows.

OP to back a previous poster - worksmart.org.uk/work-rights/hours-and-holidays/holidays/can-my-employer-make-me-take-my-holidays-when-they-want

I'm not sure why you aren't being trained up to be redeployed - I would ask for it if work is the only thing keeping you sane. I have family members and friends who work in pediatrics and they are being trained up to be redeployed. They lasted worked with adults during their training, which was a couple of decades ago.

Yes they can make you take it.
We have told staff that they cannot save it all up as we wil need the business to get back on its normal footing once we are backat work.

I think the situation in my city/ trust is not to bad at the moment. Adult intensive care doesn't look full.

Yes, legally they can tell you when to take annual leave.

And from a management perspective, they won’t want everyone working flat out at the moment, and then the entire workforce having a years worth of leave to cram into a few months after the crisis has ended.

To add to that, if I had offered staff time to take AL and asked for their requests and i had not received any, if we then got to the end of the year and had no space they would lose it (didn’t have to do this as i made sure staff didn’t leave all AL till end of the year).