Been refused any annual leave this year.

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§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.

If an individual is committing payment fraud or doing unapproved trades, they were most likely to be caught when they were on vacation and someone else was doing their tasks, be that reconciliations, hedging , IT..

A PP said the requirement for 2 weeks vacation was dropped during Covid in some institutions. This was largely because everyone had remote access at that point so vacation alone doesn’t catch the problem - they can still log on.

Improvements in financial crime surveillance is now the focus.

Oops, you can't see the critical part unless you click on the image.

Legally they must allow you the statutory minimum

But they don't have to give it to you when you want it.

You really need to go to HR to get support to ensure you get the minimum leave.

There's no requirement in the UK for how that's taken?

If you have exhausted H.R, manager options, etc contact ACAS for advice. They are so helpful.

Send a formal letter to your manager/HR saying that you have persistently been refused annual leave and you are requesting that they give you a list of dates when it is possible for you to take the annual leave that by law they must allow you.

Make it clear that some of this needs to be in blocks as you wish to book a holiday abroad - that offering random, single days throughout the year is not acceptable.

Do NOT give up your annual leave. Either your manager sorts it out or you take it higher. IT needs to change the system to accommodate actual annual leave before bought annual leave. Quote from ACAS...An employer cannot refuse to let employees take any holiday at all. By law, an employer must make sure employees can take the amount of holiday they're entitled to during the year.
Contact ACAS or your union if you're in one.

Making

No, but they have to let you take your allowance. If they don't, they're breaking the law.

This is why everyone should be in a Union.

As everyone else has said, you are legally entitled to annual leave. You may also have additional leave rights in your contract.

If your manager is too weak to help, speak to HR. If they don’t help, go to the CAB ( if you can’t afford an employment lawyer to send them a firmly worded letter).

Im guessing that there could be one day in the middle of a week and it all be turned down? Will they tell you which date the issue is with? Can you contact them and ask what is the biggest block of time they can give you in July? Can you do what people do with hard to get hotel reservations? Book a day or two days and then add a day at a time either end until hopefully you get something nearing a week.

If you've tried absolutely everything and still cant get leave despite asking within the first half of the year then surely they'll be more sympathetic to any requests to buy back (though legally they have to ensure you keep 28 days). Do you have a union?

No, but if every attempt to book it is turned down, then they're in trouble

If you work 5 days a week your statutory leave entitlement is 28 days. Statutory...this cannot be refused.

Op I think you should really join a union and speak to a rep about this. Its likely other people in your company are also frustrated and it must unfairly affect working parents or carers who may need to take leave to accommodate children etc at shorter notice.

No they're not?
Need's of a business / cover is an entirely valid reason not to approve a leave request. Otherwise the world would grind to a halt during national holidays.

Exactly. They need to reset their system so that no leave can be bought until all statutory leave has been booked. Pretty obvious.

Yes they are, because by law their employees are entitled to a minimum amount of annual leave.

If they can't accommodate that then they need to hire more staff and/or stop allowing people to buy extra leave if it means that their colleagues can't take their legal entitlement.

They have a certain amount of flexibility about how annual leave is taken, but they cannot just say, "oh no, how sad, my hands are tied" if one of their employees cannot take their legal entitlement because no days are available. They have to find a solution.

Not being allowed the times you want and not being allowed annual leave is very different. It sounds like the OP was just slow off the mark and now others have booked what they wanted.,

They can decline a specific request, but they can't make it impossible for OP to take any holiday

She hasn't been able to book any time off. Every request she has made has been refused.

Straight to HR…if you can’t take annual leave, you’re going to risk burnout, mental health problems, low motivation etc. My Manager makes sure everyone in our team takes every single bit (even if you only have a few hours left to take, she will tell ys to leave early). HR needs to sort this for you. Time off to recharge is as important as work.

See previous comment.

Have you even read the OP?

She said she initially tried to book leave a few days after bookings for this year opened, her original request was declined, and she's since tried to book leave in every month of the year without success (apart from a week in December).

How is that not making it impossible for her to take her leave?

Her employer has to sort this out otherwise they can be in big trouble.

This is the only logical way to do it.

What your company is doing is a very unfair and lazy method of doing annual leave.

Seconding previous posters' suggestions about ACAS. Don't resign yourself to not having what you are legally entitled to - people will often say they 'can't' because they just can't see a way round the system - that's why this needs to go to your manager, and her manager, etc, until you find a way to override the system. That may require them getting temporary help or being short, or even taking away some additional leave from others. Absolutely none of those things are your problem. I'd make a lot of requests for different dates and have the evidence ready: I've also found ACAS webpage printouts useful for meetings with HR who are often surprisingly ignorant of employment law. If your manager refuses then go direct to HR or the next level up.

Why concern gave you resigned yourself to it taking any leave?!? That's a bizarre reaction

Speak to your manager/HR and ask when you will be able to book the leave you are entitled to as all your requests are being declined. It's not an option for them to just say you want take it!