Can a company take back annual leave?

[TastelessMiserySand]

Posting for traffic, hope that's ok.

Here's a question...if an employer allows you to carry over annual leave from one 'leave' year into the next, are they legally allowed to dictate a date by which you must use that leave?

This has happened to my DH, and I can't work out if it seems a bit off or not.

Basically DH carried 5 days over into 2022, and he then booked all the dates he needed to take throught the year, in order to cover his share of childcare for the various school holidays.

He has now discovered that he is showing -1 days on leave remaining. When he checked, his HR contact said this is because he didn't use the carried over 5 days before a certain date, in this case, 31 March. He used 4, and has lost the other one.

He does admit that there was an email telling staff that they needed to use this carry forward by that date, so fair do's from that respect.

BUT can a company take away a day of leave and not finiacially compensate someone for that lost day either? I mean, he has a contract with X leave days a year, which he didn't get....

I'm not sure - I guess I'm just hopeful that they're perhaps not allowed to do that under some sort of contract law.

DH isn't going to take it any further, because it's just 1 day, but some people lost 4 or 5 days apparently.

Just seems a bit shit to me, given the amount of ill feeling that must cause for staff. I mean, what difference does it make when people use their carry forward leave, so long as it's within this current year? Maybe I'm missing something obvious 🤔

AIBU?

Yes we have to take in first 3 months of new year

Yes, they can specify a date to use them by.

This is quite standard wherever I've worked.

Not an expert but I think it is reasonable and legal for the employer to do this.

Annual leave applies to the specific period. You have no legal right to carry it over therefore you can impose conditions on its use in the next period.

This is quite standard I'm afraid, it's his responsibility to book it within the timeframe outlined in the email unfortunately.

I'm not allowed to carry any annual leave over.
It's use it or lose it

It could well be to do with accounting - accrued not taken leave is held on the balance sheet as a liability.

They haven't just taken away his leave....he has not used it within the specified time and lost it.

In my company it is very clear that it has to be used or forfeited, you also need approval to carry it over in the first place.

Yes they can do that. Sounds like your DH ignored the email rather than the company doing something wrong.

Yea of course they can do this. Entirely on your DH if he didnt take notice of the email, dis he read it and assume they wouldnt notice/wouldnt enforce it?

In fact many companies dont allow holiday carry over at all. He has had 15 months to take his annual leave before they said enough is enough.

Yes. Use it or lose it.

Yep use it or lose it.

Yes I have to take mine by 30th June, as long as he took the statutory minimum the year before then they can do what they like with the leave, lots of companies won't let you carry it forward in the first place so you would lose it then.

Yes my company does exactly this. You we only allowed to carry over 5 and must use them by 31st March.

Completely normal
In my organisation. Some teams don't allow carry over at all so you lose it, albeit we get tonnes of holidays anyway

If your DH was unable to take his leave within the specified period because his employer would not grant a request for the time off then he may be able to ask to carry it further or request payment.

If he just did not request leave then as far as I am aware he would lose the leave.

Fair enough, thanks for the replies. It helps to know this is pretty standard. DH will be paying much closer attention to emails about this in future I'm sure.

Yes of course they can

Yep they can. Ours have to be used by April.

DH isn't going to take it any further, because it's just 1 day, but some people lost 4 or 5 days apparently.

How could it take it further when they told him to use them by the date? Pretty stupid of his coworkers to not used the days when they were specifically told they were only carried over until X date.

Legally they don’t have to let people carry days over, and in general your employer can give reasonable parameters for using annual leave.

Yes mine is 31st March for any carry overs.
We get an email reminder in Jan and then around 1st March.

I carried five days over in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid which the government said you could do for two years. Don't know whether there were any stipulations from the government though.

Yes. There's no right to carry over at all, so the employer sets the rules. Ours allows 5 days which must be taken within 2 months of the carry over.

www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/using-holiday

Been standard anywhere I’ve worked that there is a ‘use it or lose it’ deadline. What did your husband think when he read the e-Mail?