Work won’t let me cancel leave

[centregems]

I work on a small team and only a few can be off at any one time. As soon as the holiday booking period opened in January I booked next week off as for 4 days leave you get 10 days off. Others also booked up too to the max allowed off. I don’t want that leave now as my plans have changed. My colleague is grumbling as they are saying they would have booked a holiday if they could have had the leave but I got in first. He complained to our manager who says I can’t cancel as such short notice. Is this allowed?

Yes I think you are unreasonable in circumstances given the dynamics in your workplace.

You've booked the leave. That's it. Too late now to change your mind.

We can’t cancel our leave. It’s booked until April 2027. If plans change it’s just tough luck. We could arrange a swap but 3 months is likely the minimum time needed.

It's not a rule I've come across. I have often cancelled or changed dates. Check your HR policy I guess.

I think cancelling at short notice should be accepted. As long as you don't then end up not taking all your leave.

Your colleagues wanted to book a ling Easter break and it's much too late for that now.

The law allows employers to specify when leave can be taken. If they wanted to they could say everyone has to take all their leave in November. They tend instead to permit people to pick dates within reason but once you’ve done that they are permitted to refuse to allow you to change your mind.

I think your manager is being spiteful because of your colleague. Whether you cancel it or not, he still doesn’t get to go on holiday.

However, it also depends on when you want to use it in the future

Yes I think it probably is. But others will be along soon I’m sure. Organising Rota’s, cover, work distribution etc is a significant challenge for many managers and they need certainty to keep businesses going. Similarly wanting holiday off at short notice is also challenging and so a refusal isn’t unreasonable.

It’s down to your employer, I’ve never worked anywhere that strict but I can see their point.

What would make you think it isn’t allowed?

It's allowed and there is likely a clause in your contract to that effect.

I think that’s fair especially at such short notice. The leave is no good to anyone else now and the schedule has been done for the year.

I think that is fair enough, given you blocked prime leave time and it is too late now for colleagues to make plans in that time.

Is it possible to swap with the colleague? Would it effect work?

It could have easily been a different colleague who beat him to it and he’d be in the same predicament and complaining about it to the manager was childish imo.

He knows like the rest of your team that it’s first come, first serve. That’s what it is in many workplaces.

People cancel leave or change it all the time at my place of work then someone else takes it if they want to, I can’t see the issue.

Yes they can refuse.

Same here! This rigidity is alien to me.

It depends on your role as to whether it's impactful to allow leave and cancel it but I can understand your colleague being miffed if you jumped in to book the leave and prevent others from having it.

I've usually been able to cancel leave but it's not a given where I work now.

You booked a prime slot, blocked others from taking it and now you're wanting to cancel at the last moment meaning it's too late for anyone else to use it. Managing team dynamics are part of a manager's job. It's not just about individuals. If you book leave early so you can reserve the best dates then you need to use it.

Well you grabbed prime leave time now suddenly don’t want it - when no one else can use it as it is too late. So I don’t know what your holiday policy says, but to me stopping you from cancelling it is reasonable.

Can the employer legally do this? Yes. Once leave is booked and approved, it can be considered to be a binding arrangement. Cancellation is at the employer’s discretion. Sure it'll piss the employee off but I suspect that because of the colleague's complaint, they're making an example of the OP. In my experience, it's to stop people booking prime time off in the hope of catching a last-minute deal, not finding an acceptable deal and then giving backword meaning that others miss out (or incur expensive additional childcare costs). If OP had given a reasonable amount of notice for the cancellation, that's a different argument.

I agree, I think the employer is saying something to the effect of ‘If you ‘bagsy’ a prime holiday time you take it even if you decide later you don’t want it’. It’s now too late for anyone else to arrange their holiday for that time.

Unless there is someone else prepared to negotiate for that time and even then, the employer should have the right to say no, our arrangements have been made.

Obviously it depends on the circumstances of your employment but sometimes employers can't, or aren't prepared to, be flexible.

I don’t know the law but my work doesn’t allow cancelling holidays.

I can imagine the chaos of people constantly cancelling and booking holidays.

You can’t allow one person to do it and not the others.
There has to be some sort of rule to follow.

We can cancel but only up to six weeks out from the booked leave.