Is this my problem or my managers?

[applesaucy]

I work Monday to Friday and every other Saturday but we are not aloud to book Saturdays off as holiday so instead if we need a Saturday off we need to arrange cover so ask another member of staff on the opposite Saturday to cover or swap.
As you can imagine it’s not easy to get someone to agree to this.
However I asked around for cover for a particular Saturday and someone agreed to cover so I booked the rest of the time off which was accepted and I booked a holiday over Easter.
Now they have changed their mind and said they can’t do that Saturday after all so my manager is saying I have to work that Saturday now or find other cover.
I don’t think it’s my responsibility to find alternative cover when I have booked my holiday because someone was going to do it.
It is in the contract that we must arrange cover for Saturday as they cannot be booked as holiday which I accept but in this situation I am out of pocket because I have paid for my holiday.

Was the swap “official” at the time your colleague changed their mind? If so, could you suggest to your manager that it is no longer your Saturday so it should be your colleague that has to find cover?

otherwise, I would be contacting all of your other colleagues to explain the situation and see if it generates a bit of good will because they feel sorry for the position you’ve been put in

It is irrelevant because legally, they can just cancelled your holiday now and you'd back to square one having to find someone else.

It feels very unfair but that's the law, they only gave to give the same amount of notice as the length of the holiday.

I hope someone else will be kind enough to swap with you especially now that you've booked the holiday.

It’s never really official, you usually just ask someone to swap or cover and they do it.

If Saturday is part of your working pattern how is it acceptable that you can never book it as leave?
Have you consulted ACAS?
I know that employers can cancel leave if necessary, but they are essentially saying that you can never book a full weeks leave (unless you beg a favour, which doesn’t seem fair or realistic)

It’s the persons fault who has let you down, in all honesty, I’m not sure whose problem it is now. I’d probably send round an email explaining the situation and just ask honestly for someone to help you out of goodwill. If that doesn’t come, I think I’d probably try and appeal to my manager that I’d done absolutely everything I could and is there a solution in the fact he could swap with me?

I agree. This can't be legal surely? If you're relying on favours that can be cancelled at any moment you can't ever book a holiday!

We used to get this alot as we work shifts, someone would say they could swap then changed their mind leaving the other person in the lurch.

In the end as management we agreed if a shift swap was agreed it was marked on the rota, if the person who had swapped onto the shift then couldn’t do it it was their responsibility to either swap the shift or work it rather than it fall back to the person whos shift it was originally as they have made plans based on their shift being covered.

Obviously your manager would have to implement this across your workplace so i’m not sure it would help you immediately.

Well at what point did this colleagues agreement to do the Saturday become set in stone. As in they put their name down for that shift? If they never did then they were bullshitting from the start. If they did, then it's them cancelling their shift, not you.

They can't fire you for not having a roster of qualified people willing to cover your shifts at short notice. If you were you'd be running an employment agency and taking a percent off the employer for using your staff.

What type of company/work is this OP?

I'd be looking for another job, that's an appalling way of managing things. I've worked in and around HR law throughout my career but this is so odd, I actually don't know off the top of my head if it's legal! It should absolutely be your manager's responsibility but, if it's written into your contract and you've signed that contract, they may well be right to put the responsibility on you, (even though it's a highly unprofessional way to work).

am guessing you are not in a union? join one.

And this policy is batshit. So your company need to address that, with an official rota swap, approved on the leave system with the two swappers and the manager to sign it off.

Do you need the job?

Surely your contract allows you to book holidays in a two-week bloc?

also how far in advance are your shifts advised? What happens if a Saturday shift person calls in sick?

If you only work 2 Saturdays per month its not saying that you can't ever have a full weeks holiday just that you cant on those two weeks per month without arranging cover for yourself, so its legal even if its a pita.

so glad i live in a country where you must be allowed, by law, at least one break of 2 weeks holiday.

my old job was the same, work every third Sat and can’t book it off, have to swap

We used to have this exact system years ago when I worked in a call centre as we did 1 out of 4 Saturdays and had to arrange a swap if we wanted our Saturday off (banking). You had to send an internal email to the colleague to arrange the swap which was kept as evidence. Then if they changed their mind last minute or after it was agreed it was their problem to solve. Seems unfair OP! This is not a reliable system.

you need a new job or at least one with better managers. They need to sort out a formal system of recording days once they are swapped. Currently it sounds like you could agree a swap and the colleague could literally send you a text 5 mins before your shift starts while you're relaxing on a sunbed in Tenerife saying 'Sorry, I'm hungover, can't cover your shift today,' and you'd still be the one at fault, which is obviously ridiculous.

I'd turn it back on the manager and ask what exactly they would do in your situation and when is the cut off point for the swappee to change their mind, for example in the scenario above. But to be honest if they cba to actually manage and just leave it to their staff to work out issues between them they don't sound like good managers anyway.

Short term if you don't get anywhere, all I can think of is you offer a colleague some money to work your shift - give them enough and someone will do it and it will still be cheaper than you cancelling your holiday. Get them to come into the office with you and literally tell your manager you've agreed the swap and get their name on the rota or whatever instead of yours, or them to send a text to manager saying they're going to cover it, before you hand over the money. Long term, look for a job with fairer employers.

This. I can't see for one second how this could be legal.