Never allowed to take leave on a Friday

[Rorous]

There are 4 people in my team and one of whom doesn’t work Fridays. For this reason I am never allowed to take a Friday as annual leave and I find it absurd. Even when I request a week off I am being asked to work on a Friday! I’m wondering whether I am being unreasonable and should just simmer down, or kick up a fuss with my line manager… advice please?

Just to add, there are no meetings/pieces of work planned for these days. I’m just there “in case something happens” and I have never been called upon for anything urgent in my 3 years of working here.

No this isn't a thing. If someone has to be there to cover Fridays it cannot always be you. So management needs to sort it out.

Does this mean you can never book a full week's holiday in one block?

Going completely OT, this reminded me that I used to work somewhere that would only allow you to book a Friday or a Monday if you were booking the whole week, as they were our busiest days.

I no longer work there but every time I book a day or two of leave, my first thought is “it can’t be Monday or Friday” then realise I left that company in 1999!

Don't give advice if you dont know the law. It's just not helpful.
Employers do not have to legally agree to requests and can defer leave and also actually tell you when to take it. They do however have to ensure you take tge hunber of days alĺowed leave. Most dont as they realise they need happy employees.

Happy employees is the key.

If you have worked in a place for more than 8 months you are entitled to take 2 weeks of unbroken annual leave. That is the law.

Have you got a source for that?

That is not on any employment law I’ve ever read.

It’s maybe been a policy in some places you have worked but it’s not the law.

Totally ridiculous! Have you got a HR department? Join a union?

That's not the law in the UK.

There is guidance that people should be able to take 2 weeks but it's only guidance.

Right, for the avoidance of doubt, here are the rules on booking annual leave in the UK:
https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/booking-time-off

The general notice period for taking leave is at least twice as long as the amount of leave a worker wants to take, plus 1 day. For example, a worker would give 3 days’ notice for 1 day’s leave.
An employer can refuse a leave request or cancel leave but they must give as much notice as the amount of leave requested, plus 1 day. For example, an employer would give 11 days’ notice if the worker asked for 10 days’ leave.
If the contract says something different about the notice a worker or employer should give, what’s in the contract will apply.
Although employers can refuse to give leave at a certain time, they cannot refuse to let workers take the leave at all.

When leave can and cannot be taken
Employers can:

• tell their staff to take leave, for example bank holidays or Christmas
• restrict when leave can be taken, for example at certain busy periods

There may be rules about this in the employment contract. The notice period for this is at least twice as long as the leave they want their staff to take. The employer must tell the worker before the notice period begins.

So technically your employer can say 'no leave to be taken on Fridays'. Ideally it would be in your contract but it doesn't have to be. As long as your employer is letting you take your leave allocation over the course of the year, they can dictate when you can or cannot take it.

Having said that it's a crappy policy, and I would absolutely challenge it with HR, especially if it only applies to a small number of people.

But it’s not “no leave on Fridays” it’s only no leave on Fridays for the OP. Everyone else can take it. So they wouldn’t win this. It’s not fair that’s every other staff member can take a full week or two and go on holidays, but the OP can’t.

A request not to work Fridays should never have been approved if it was going to prevent other people from taking a Friday off. Go over your boss's head.

A request not to work Fridays should never have been approved if it was going to prevent other people from taking a Friday off

Yes this. Was the other person hired on 4 days or was it a full time job and they requested to move to 4 days? If the latter, they would have needed to fill out an explanation of why it wouldn’t affect their colleagues or the business negatively. The answer can’t be “oh X will always be there to cover me”!

This.

I moved to p/t 16 years ago, originally Mon-Wed, then Mon-Thu again.

When I increased back to 4 days, my team head tried to get me to work Fridays and have the Monday off. Fair enough to ask but his reason was that it is difficult to take off Fridays if only 3/4 of the team is in and that would mean people couldn't take long weekends.

I showed him the attendance records for 3 years and the number of Fridays being taken by other team members despite me not working. He backed down (I think he also realised that it was him, who had the majority of Fridays and Mondays off).

So, if you want to take two weeks off to go Spain, your LM will turn it down?

That’s ridiculous, most people take a week or a fortnights summer holiday, so you are saying no one in your work place can take a full week or more off?

id be escalating that to senior management., in my last work place someone in my team took every Wednesday off during school holidays meaning no one else could get a weeks holiday, I escalated it to management and above and this was reviewed.

all sorted the next week.

does your manager take a Friday off?

That’s ridiculous, most people take a week or a fortnights summer holiday, so you are saying no one in your work place can take a full week or more off

It sounds like everyone else can, just not the OP.

Unfortunately, employers can tell staff exactly when they can take holiday and can tell staff exactly when they can't take holiday, so long as they comply with the appropriate notice period (though note any employment contract or Employee Handbook would also be applicable).

That said, your employer is expected to have a good business reason to refuse a holiday request. Given that OP herself says she manages her own workload and it's not putting anyone else out, other than making sure there's always a specified number of people in the building for security/customer facing purposes, it doesn't sound like there is a good business reason.

https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-holiday-entitlement/asking-for-and-taking-holiday

If you don't get anywhere with HR @Rorous you can raise a grievance. Your employee handbook should provide information on your company's process for this.

It sounds like it's unfair if the OP is being treated differently to others at her workplace when it comes to holidays.

Has behaviour towards you changed since coming back from Mat leave? If so could be discrimination and needs addressing urgently.

Thanks everyone. Had my meeting with HR today and the lady was very supportive of me; she is going to speak with my line manager about it. She said much of what’s been commented here; if the working patterns of the team can’t allow me to take AL with a NWD then the working pattern shouldn’t have been approved.

She also commented on how other members of my team have had whole weeks off, evidence that for whatever reason I’m being treated differently!

Glad the meeting went well. The situation is ridiculous!

That’s good news! The HR person sounds switched on. Good luck!

“She also commented on how other members of my team have had whole weeks off, evidence that for whatever reason I’m being treated differently!”

That’s the key. If everyone had a Friday ban, fair enough, but op is being singled out.