I spoke to a couple of well-respected solicitors (employment law) today. The first, a woman, didn't exactly get my problem. She kept insisting I shouldn't worry and that I would be allowed to stick my AL at the end of my ML, even if that meant carrying it over into the next year. She said that she had never heard of a case where a woman hadn't been allowed to take her annual leave. It seemed, however, that she was a little lost as to why I would not just accept money instead of time off. Maybe that is why I liked her less.
The second solicitor, a more senior man, was very helpful. He said that the law is absolutely on my side even though it's a bit of a grey area and that I'm not asking anything unreasonable of my employer. He said I could not be forced to accept money instead of actual time off and while I might not be able to take all my AL up front, a compromise would be that half would be before ML and the rest after, even if that meant carrying it over to the next year (in case I'm not allowed to take it up front).
He said to write a formal and firm yet polite letter to my boss, outlining what I would like to do and offering different scenarios of how my leave could be taken. If my letter is ignored, he said, I should take it to the Employment Tribunal which I would most likely win. He key for the tribunal, he said, was to be reasonable and that my boss can not reasonable show how me getting my holidays would affect his business in anyway.
The problem, however, is that I work for a very small company which would mean that my boss will make my life hell after a tribunal and find an excuse to fire me. Big companies can't get away with this but apparently a small business can. It wouldn't be legal but we don't live in an ideal world. So the solicitor says, while I will win my case, I have to be prepared to leave my job after.
I have thought about it for a while but to be honest, the relationship between my boss and me has probably broken down so much already that I will be looking for another job anyway after my ML; I need to for my own sanity. I'm not talking about a career I have, just a bog-standard part-time job.
So I will write my letter and hope that this can be resolved peacefully but will I take it further if I have to. Just out of principle. Because this man has to know that he can't treat his staff the way he is. He is also doing other illegal stuff, which is not the point of this post but I feel that something has to be done.
The latest thing is, that he seems to have decided that I'm not entitled to my holidays of this year anymore because I have been off sick for pregnancy complications...