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?

No she can't under UK employment law

Pretty twatty to put it in as a placeholder so no one else can. I would be fuming if I was your colleague

Without knowing what the industry is or what roles you and your colleague have it's impossible to say if the manager is being unfair or not. If they've planned around a particular skill mix it may well be far too late to change.

In the UK there is no automatic right for an employee to unilaterally cancel pre-booked annual leave.
The employer decides whether to agree to the cancellation request — and they can refuse if it doesn't suit business needs.

@ISpyNoPlumPie What??!!! No. Sick leave, emergency leave, unpaid leave. Who said don’t show up? Bizarre.

Sick leave is a negative reflection on the employee. I avoid it at all costs.

I've never heard of "emergency leave."

You must be very rich if you can take unpaid leave.

I'm sorry but that makes absolutely no sense.

Why? … it makes perfect sense to me. People need a break when they are well, so it doesn’t seem good for anyone’s wellbeing to use up annual leave on days they are too sick to work.

But this week wasn’t school holiday for a lot of schools, so not necessarily as useful for anyone who wants to spend those 10 days with their kids.

This. YABVU.

You need to read up on Working Time Regulation- yes they can do this. However, I have employees and have never stopped anyone cancelling leave and would give it to the other person who wanted it at short notice - because I can. Other businesses will follow the rules to the letter of the law.

I think for team morale if I was the manager I would not allow it either. Having someone book the 'prime' leave, doing it as early as possible so to ensure to get it and thus blocking others from doing so and then cancelling it at such late notice so no-one else can use it would have a negative effect on the team.

I realise it would also have a negative effect on OPs morale but that is one person vs the rest of the team.