Been refused any annual leave this year.

[HolidayNotAvailable]

§Name changed as I don’t want my name to be associated as I know some people who work for the same company are on here.

I am entitled to 25 days annual leave, which increases every year after two years.

If you don’t take all your annual leave you can carry over 35 hours but if you don’t take the rest then you lose it.

Things are made more complicated by the fact that people are allowed to buy additional annual leave, and this means that a lot of people have up to 35 days.

The upshot of this is that there isn’t enough quota in the calendar to allow all annual leave requests.

Our annual leave system is digital, we book annual leave and receive a message to say it is either declined or accepted.

And the annual leave is based on how many people are available in the department not the team.

Most people end up booking all their annual leave at the beginning of the year, including their extra two weeks which most people have bought.

Which means that if you haven’t booked any annual leave for the next year by the end of December when the annual leave is released on to the system you pretty much don’t stand a chance.

I didn’t book as soon as the leave was released not least because I didn’t have any specific plans, but even when I started to try a couple of days in all my requests were declined.

To date I have attempted to book several weeks in every month of the year, and apart from one week in December, and one day which I know I will get over Christmas because those are booked separately, every one of my requests has been declined.

So this means that by the end of the year I am going to have about four weeks annual leave left, and I can only carry over one week.
I am certain that this is made worse by the fact that people are able to buy extra leave and that realistically we don’t have enough quota in the department to accommodate existing annual leave as wel as essentially several months worth when you take into account all that has been bought.

Some people have 6/7 weeks booked in, and I can’t even get one.

I’m sure there’s no way I can get the time off, so I’ve resigned myself to not taking any annual leave this year apart from that one week in December.

But would it be reasonable to approach my employer and request that, given I’ve been declined any leave, they buy it back off me? I don’t know what else to do.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom there is no legislation that says you need to take 2 weeks in a row. Some companies may specify it themselves but its not an actual rule.

OP - just speak to your HR department or whoever you have in charge. Their ways of working is not compliant with the legislation especially since the recent changes where employers are expected to encourage you to take your annual leave. The system is broken but it requires people to raise it all the way. The law is definitely there to back you up. They'll have to find a way to allow people their leave such as raising the quotas or, next year, removing the buying of holiday option. They cannot however buy your holiday back of you, at least not the statutory amount (the core 28days).

That’s mad that people can use their ‘bought’ leave over people’s statutory leave. Surely the statutory leave should come first. If no luck talking to management then either join a Union, go off sick or look for a new job.

It’s not your job to solve the problem (worrying about shift overlaps, weekends, bank holidays). You are entitled by law to an amount of annual leave. You need to contact HR, CC in your manager for advice on how to ensure you get your statutory holiday as a minimum.

If they are unhelpful push back and start copying in your union.

I was maybe being too subtle in my comment. I meant the only complication she needs to worry about is how her entitlement is worked out. How management/HR make sure she is able to take it is not her problem to solve. She doesn’t need to worry about how many people can take leave when and try to find the solution. HR need to find the solution. If it’s one of the big 5 like Barclays or Lloyds (I name these because they are the ones I’ve actually worked at) it’s a simple fix, but HR do need to be made aware so they can fix it.

Like others have said this is why HR systems have manual overrides.

Unless all banks are this shit, I'm pretty sure this is Lloyds. I know someone who recently joined. She has to request all annual leave for the following year in Sep/Oct of the year before. No spontaneity allowed. They then take months to agree/deny the request. We were both gobsmacked that the long serving staff have accepted this but they think it's normal and have been institutionalised. On one infamous occasion one member of staff was declined leave to attend her brother's wedding where she was a bridesmaid.

Given other banks have been suggested upthread, I think we can assume thry are all shit in their own ways...

I can see a policy like this being really restrictive, especially for parents & others with caring responsibilities who need to juggle things. Unless of course, the overall annual leave is extremely generous.

It sounds like incompetence on the part of those who implemented the system and/or are running it. It is odd because ime those who administer such processes are usually super sharp on the legal implications; if anything it is them who will be chasing employees and their managers to ensure they take their leave entitlements.

A digitalised annual leave system sounds weird anyway; it should surely be up to managers to grant annual leave requests and ensure that absences are covered within their teams. Your 'manager' doesn't seem to be required to do very much actual managing at all.

In some jobs they enforce it whether the employee wants to or not, for compliance reasons.

But it's plainly unreasonable to tell an employee who wants to go on holiday that they have to use their holiday allowance on random days here and there because that's all that's left, when other employees have booked 6 or 7 weeks off. If nothing else I think it could be the basis of a constructive dismissal claim.

Lots of annual leave policies are really restrictive.

All of that sounds like their problem to me. You are LEGALLY ENTITLED to take your leave, no matter what issues it causes. If they don't have cover, too bad. Not your circus, not your monkeys.

Put it back on them. I am legally entitled to annual leave, please give me a list of dates when I can take it as it keeps getting refused. Don't deviate from script. Repeat, I am legally entitled to it so please give me some dates or I will be taking this higher.

A digitalised annual leave system sounds weird anyway; it should surely be up to managers to grant annual leave requests and ensure that absences are covered within their teams. Your 'manager' doesn't seem to be required to do very much actual managing at all.

It should be over-rideable, but it isn't weird - a good system will show if others are off already. Ours shows everyone in the department who has absence booked - we see it just as grey out-of-office, but our own is multicoloured, as it is to our manager - annual leave, training, parental leave, bereavement leave, medical leave, jury duty, etc, etc. It means if there are clashes (which the system will alert,) he can see who is likely to have more flexibility or not.

YANBU
Sendcan email to your manager, CC in HR and say you are unable to book your leave as there doesn’t appear to be capacity.

tell them what hours you have and ask which days are free to book. Then say you want to carry over hours you can’t book if there is no space but your preference is to book them off.

does your policy say anything about booking in advance etc. I would quote it and say ‘there is nothing in the policy to say I need to book things 6 months in advance and I’ve tried several weeks in advance’. Ask them Are there actually enough slots to allow all staff leave to be used or does the number of staff off per day on the system need to be increased.

they cant penalise you if it’s a system failure . They must make an exception and allow you to carry it over. However if you are not bookin leave regularly and leaving it to last minute then it’s on you/don’t expect it back. Do it all in email for evidence.

Additionally if they aren’t allowing you to carry it over you should be paid it.

contractually you are entitled to whatever and it sounds like their systems are flawed. Join a union if you need to and take a rep with you for annual leave meeting. But a lot of posters here don’t seem to understand the basics of employment law/contracts etc. so don’t listen that it’s your fault, deal with it- the company is stealing from you.

1. email and show proof of when you’ve been reject.
2. ask for them to assign you leave
3. show you are sticking to hr annual leave policy and quote it.
4. copy in your manager’s manager coz all these informal chats are going nowhere. It isn’t your job to manage this.
5. keep email threads and if you’re pulled for an informal chat, follow it up with an email to document it eg further to our chat on date xxx as discussed I’ve done this and I await you to do this.

you shouldn’t have to do this but sounds like your management and possibly Hr are completely incompetent at best and at worst are cynical and exploiting you all.

if they are not allowing staff to use their leave , then not carrying it over/paying you for it then they are stealing free labour from you all. So don’t let them get away with it.

There is a considerable difference between policies such as no leave in the run up to Christmas and one where you cannot take all your legal entitlement.

Yes I agree.

I'm saying it's common for employers to specify that you have to take two weeks in a row, or that you have to take leave at certain times or you can't take it at certain times.

But they all have to make sure you can take it, and not just in random days here and there.

If shes UK based you're incorrect, there's no legal provision for this.

The other thing the OP could do is inform her manager that if she isn't able to take a decent block of annual leave so she can go on holiday, she'll get her GP to sign her off sick with stress on the grounds that she's completely burnt out, and then they'll have to find a way of covering the time at much shorter notice than they would if they actually allowed her to book the leave she's legally entitled to.

What fantastic career advice 😂

It's perfectly legitimate. Anyone would be burnt out if they're denied holiday.

Any employers going to interpret that as blackmail.

Go see your HR department or manager.

Your number of days leave is part of your contract.

But as grown up, it's also a healthy idea to discuss with your manager/HR the practice of annual leave taking priority over "bought" leave, or no "bought" leave being requested or used in the first 3 months of the company year.

Legally they have to allow you the statutory minimum. Speak to your line manager or HR. They can dictate when you take it. They have to give you double the amount of time as the days they are asking you to take.
you need to follow this up as you are entitled to this.

Any employer which isn't allowing the OP to take a holiday has not got a single leg to stand on.