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.

Do you work for a bank with 4 letters op? In a call centre based role? Just a hunch based on your info.

No I’d just like a week off here and there. I don’t really care although i would like a week off in July or September, am happy to concede that August is more or less impossible because so many people with kids will jump on that first.

I know it’s not just me who has difficulties. Weekends for instance are pretty much impossible, and anyone who has ever wanted more than a week pretty much has to show proof that they’ve booked a holiday to be able to get more than that.

There’s no such thing as being entitled to a block of time off, you’re expected to be content with what you can manage to book, and if you manage to get a day off on a weekend then you consider yourself lucky.

It's not reasonable at all for your company to stop you taking leave because "too many other people have" - that isn't how it works and it's not your problem to resolve, tell them you need to book xxx and ask how they can make it work.

They are not allowed to decline that many holiday requests. There are legal rights and requirements around holiday in the UK.

I would kick up a stink to get some booked.

If they still refused, take it as sick leave!

Absolutely don't just resign yourself to this OP, this is an employment issue. They have to allow you to take the amount you're contractually entitled to (ie before any additional leave purchased) and if their system is so poor and they're so under resourced that they can't allow you to book anything if not booked up within the first month then they need to revise their system. Definitely one for a meeting with your manager and HR but don't just accept this OP. Ridiculous system anyway if you don't stand a chance of getting any leave booked if not done immediately - plenty of people need/want to use leave for ad hoc things which will crop up throughout the year that you don't yet know about, aside from say planning your two week summer holiday and what have you.

Call ACAS

Your employer can refuse leave at particular times, such as if too many other staff are off, or at particularly busy times (I grew up on a farm -family holidays in summer were never a thing, because of harvest.)

But they can't prevent you taking your statutory leave at all. They have a system that is preventing that, so the system needs to change. Our managers tend to spend some time from August/September encouraging people to book leave, if it looks like they would be carrying over more than the 5 days allowed at the end of the leave year (December.)

Also, when I worked for a US bank, employees were meant to have 2 consecutive work weeks out of the office - this could include external training, but it was meant to be time with no logging on to work systems, because it was easier for any fraudulent activities to shoe up in that time. Things have probably changed - far fewer external, in-person training courses these days, and expectations around constant availability have changed, not necessarily fir the better, but employers since have at least encouraged at least one werk a year to ve taken off in a single block.

They must let you take some leave, even if it's not always at your preferred times. You must raise this to help them keep the law.

Honestly - stop assuming there's nothing can be done. If they continue to refuse you basically get to the end of the annual leave calendar and you take it ALL then, or they've breached your legal rights.

Also - line managers shouldn't be accepting holiday purchase requests if there is not enough capacity in the team for extra leave.

You need to speak to HR and complain. Additional weeks should not be allowed to be booked before everyone has had the change to book statutory weeks first.

Her hands are not tied, it's illegal not to allow you statutory holiday

If she's not able to resolve I would raise a grievance with HR

1. Join a union.

2. You have an undeniable right to the leave. Sadly management are allow to dictate when that leave. Send an email to your line manager referring to your rejected requests and asking what dates they can offer you to allow you to take all your leave. Keep this discussion in writing.

YABU to be so defeatist. Is it a shit system? Yes, clearly. But have you exhausted all your options? No.

Keep a detailed record of everything, all requests, emails, discussions, meetings etc.. Make the notes immediately after and put the date and time of writing. If need be, take a colleague into meetings with you to act as a witness. Should it ever come to taking them to Employment Tribunal, these notes will be invaluable as evidence.

A family member used to sit as one of the judges at Employment Tribunals and this was the first advice he'd give anyone with a problem.

I’m 100% sure I work for the same company as you!

LOL I knew there was a good reason for name changes. Unless of course there’s more than one with this practice. Wouldn’t surprise me tbh.

HR here. You need to escalate this in writing to HR. Your employer has a legal responsibility to ensure that you take your statutory 5.6 weeks (4 weeks of annual leave plus the bank holidays). Statutory means set out in law. They can’t just refuse to let you take leave and if they do and then refuse to let you carry it over then they could be found guilty of unlawful deduction of annual leave.

Here is the ACAS page
https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-holiday-entitlement/asking-for-and-taking-holiday

A UK bank? That’s shocking. I have worked for four different banks (both UK and international) in my career and none have this kind of practice

I am assuming that you are in a call centre or somewhere like a cash centre if you are talking about shifts?

Shifts are irrelevant. The law states that you are entitled to a minimum number of days off. And the system should be set up to ensure everyone gets their minimum before people can take any of the extra that they have bought

As a pp said you sound defeated but what they are doing is very likely illegal and you need to get advice on how this can be resolved whether it’s HR or ACAS

Also a line manager’s hands are never tied - they should be going to HR for you

"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."

These shit managers rely on pushovers like you to allow them to crawl to the top. You're so passive when you should be fucking incensed!

Demand your annual leave! Those who have bought leave will have to have some cancelled to accommodate won't they

I think you’re right to be careful, best to keep personal life and work as separate as you can! :-) I’m sure you will manage to get somewhere with escalating it, as others say you are entitled to the holiday! X

Ok so not public service - right this needs sorting and fast, or else you’ll be blamed as more than half the year will be gone. also believe if they must give you 2 weeks in a block for fsa rules.

I’d speak to the line manager again, say you understand they’re hands are tied but you need to sort this, so do they want to escalate or are they happy for you to do so?

then email HR, cc’ing in your line manager and head of hated department, explaining you have tried to book leave and it has all been rejected and that you’ve also been told there is no full week at any point this year you would be allowed to take leave. That obviously that is not an acceptable or legal situation so how do they suggest you proceed?

that you need to take 23 days leave at least this year, you would like to take at least one full week, can they advise which days you can have off work?

they might well turn round and say they can’t help, but it’s in writing for next steps. Make sure you put in a line about that clearly the system of booking leave needs to be updated as this doesn’t seem an efficient use of company resources.

Do you have an HR department? You need to bring this up with them

Oh and definitely look for another job, I refuse to believe this is the only way they are treating staff badly.

This is incompetence from the line manager.

The system doesn't work to allow everyone to have their leave, but it can't possibly be true that "the company" , a big bank, intends to deprive staff of their legal right to take leave.

The line manage needs to sort it out by taking it to whoever she needs to to get it done.

I agree with PP, put everything in writing and ask LM to confirm you've understood correctly that you are unable to to take your legal entitlement to annual leave.