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.

My mother worked for a bank. They were draconian about holidays.

By law you are entitled to paid holiday
Read here
https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights

Actually, I'm not directly involved in the sector, but I thought blocks of leave were mandatory in banks? As an anti fraud measure?

Legally you are entitled to 5.6 weeks per year so if you work a 5 day week pattern you are legally entitled to 28 days. Contact your manager and explain you can't book your legal entitlement and obviously don't want the company to be breaking the law so can they sort out some dates.

I don't think that does complicate matters - it's the same situation as if you all worked 9-5. The two shifts cannot be taken such that there is no overlap. Therefore if anyone has leave, no one else can have leave that same day.

Go above your manager and to HR. They can’t act illegally because they have a stupid system

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.*@EBearhug I used to work for a medium sized UK building society and they had the same rule.

That's what I understood, too.

OP, does your employer have an Employee Welfare policy? Is there all sorts plastered over noticeboards about wellbeing? If so, reference these in your conversations with HR.

It might be worth having a read of this guidance from ACAS https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-holiday-entitlement/asking-for-and-taking-holiday as it also has suggestions about how to take things further. Or you could contact their helpline for advice.

Paid annual leave is a legal right and there are processes that can be followed if you do not feel able to take your leave. I appreciate that in the real world it can be hard to take action if you need your job but there is more information here and you could consider raising a formal grievance in order to escalate the issue.
https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights

It's totally wrong that you are being put in this position.

This. Wake up OP.

Email HR and tell them you have tried numerous times to book leave and every time it has been rejected. Also that you have raised the issue with your manager but it has not been resolved.

Again, it is illegal for them to withhold annual leave. Their shit system is not your problem.

This is appalling and illegal, as PPs have already said. I would talk to your manager and say that you will be escalating to HR. Up to you how you play it, but I would probably make it sound sympathetic ("I understand that your hands are tied and you're in a difficult position, but this isn't actually legal, it's a problem for everyone in the department and I need to take it to HR so that they can resolve it") - if you're lucky she'll support you, but even if she doesn't, then hopefully she won't feel like you're complaining about her, just the policy.

There's an excellent cartoon series on TikTok/FB of an assertive woman called Veronica dealing with her manager's unreasonable demands: https://www.tiktok.com/@dark_tales0/video/7324794220030479648 I think you need to channel your inner Veronica!

No organisation can deprive you if your statutory entitlement, no matter how inconvenient. You need to point this out to your line management.

There is no absolute entitlement to 2 weeks consecutive leave!

Your managers hands might be tied but then you write to HR. Legally they have to let you have the minimum, so they will have to find some dates. Next year you’ll have to be more organised and just select certain weeks and make plans based around the weeks you’ve chosen

I work shifts.

if I cannot take all my leave - as long as I can show I tried to take it and was declined, I can carry every outstanding day over.

if there is not enough capacity to give you your standard leave, then why the hell are they allowing others extra?

It doesn’t complicate matters at all, it just means your annual leave entitlement will be in hours. We do this all the time for flexible working patterns. If your organisation has a full time week of 40 hours then as a legal minimum you should be taking 224 hours leave a year (including bank holidays)

Surely there must be some full weeks available.
Have you requested November? Nobody ever takes time off then.

Next year stick all your annual leave requests in as soon as you are allowed, easier to change once they are in, but don't lose it for this year. You have had some great suggestions around wording, they can't sack you for taking your legally entitled holidays.

Bosses hands may be as tied as yours and she may welcome an edict saying people can't buy extra holidays going forward.

I agree re calling ACAS.

Your line manger said her hands are tied? What a fucking shit show and response.

It's a legal requirement. She can either decide to deal with it or you go round her. But you cannot be denied your holiday entitlement.

That is true for people that have access to banking systems. So while it will be compulsory for some people in a bank, it won’t be for all. I have never had to do it for the last 15 years because of the role I do now. Previously I did because I was in a processing role

It is used, certainly in the banks I have worked for, as an anti fraud measure

Your employer can tell you when to take annual leave but it can’t just keep denying it to the point where you can take any. You are legally entitled to 20 days plus 8 Bank Holidays. If your requests keep getting denied, go to them to ask when it can be taken but I would raise a grievance tbh.

I'd email HR & manager and ask them to inform you which weeks are available for you to take.

They must know they would lose this at an employment tribunal and the resulting publicity would be pretty appalling. You actually hold the cards here, OP, if you choose to play them.

This is what manual workarounds were invented for. Also whoever developed the IT should have probably tested for this scenario.

@HolidayNotAvailable jeezus!! what country is this?? this is no legal in the UK!!