Employer cancelling A/L

[Greygoose21]

Hi all,

My work place has shut downs during the year and I get 7 floating days.
I went back to work last week after being on furlough. My impression was I would go back to work for two weeks and then have a week off as per the work shut down. I’ve been told today that I have to next week. Not including bank holiday Monday. How much notice do they have to give to cancel A/L ?

Thanks

Yes, your employer can cancel a period of annual leave, which is notice of at least the same length as the period of leave to be cancelled. For example, if you have booked a period of four days’ annual leave, your employer must give at least four days’ notice of cancellation.

Your employer must not cancel a period of annual leave if it means that you are unable to take your full statutory annual leave entitlement in that leave year.

If your employer cancels a period of leave without a clear business reason (and without compensation) which results in you not being able to go on a booked holiday and suffering financial loss, you may have a case for constructive dismissal. You would need to argue that the cancellation is a breach of the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence with your employer.

www.landaulaw.co.uk/holidays/

UK

Can I just be clear about this? I am reading this that you do not have booked annual leave, but that your workplace normally operates a shut down at this time of year, and this year they have decided not to do that because they have already been shut down for several weeks on furlough? And that you have assumed there would be a shut down, not actually been told that there would be one?

If that is the case then I think, unless you have some very substantial reason for not being able to work next week, this is not the time to argue about it. If the employer didn't notify you of a shut down, then your assumption there would be one, no matter how things have worked previously, is not their problem - there never was any annual leave scheduled. Plus, to be honest, you have been on furlough for some weeks, the business needs to get back to normal services, and you want to argue that you should get another week off after only being back for two weeks. That wouldn't be an argument that would stand much scrutiny - these are unusual times, and everyone has to pitch in. Businesses are already going under or retrenching, and people are losing their jobs. This is the time to make sure that yours insn't one of them.