Holiday entitlement..can they force you to book a week at a time?

[StillMedusa]

My ds2 works for Asda. He has just been told that he will not be allowed to book days off (eg to attend a family wedding), only in blocks of a week at a time as it isn't convenient for their system.
Obviously we will try and find out more (DS2 has autism and mild LDs and will struggle to find out or understand the information himself) but does this sound legal?! Surely they can't enforce a blanket ban on single days or say, a weekend as long as they have enough leave left?

It's pretty crap but yes, they can make him do this. They can actually decide when he can take all of his holiday if they so choose.

They can specify when holidays can be taken

Yes, an employer can dictate when leave can be taken.

Very common in areas like manufacturing where factories close for several weeks during the summer and everyone has to take leave then.

I once had a job where everyone was allocated their holiday in a 3 week block. If allocated at start of 6 month contract, that was it - no more!

No idea if it was legal though.

They can, if that's their policy. He should check his employee handbook. If those are the rules then that's what he's signed up to.

However if others are getting the odd day off and your son has been told no then he can argue against it.

Often my friend who works in Asda swaps shifts with her colleagues.

Yeah they can.

Many moons ago, I worked somewhere that you could only use five of your days for odd days off, and only one Monday, one Tuesday etc. The rest would be taken in weeks.

Any employment contract I've ever had says holidays are taken with agreement of line manager. Pretty standard.

The more senior you are the less likely they are to stop you. But then the more senior you are, the less likely you are to want to take holiday at inconvenient times.

Yes they can, they have to provide double the notice of the amount of leave they want you to take. So for example if they want you to take 5 days they should give you 10 days notice.

Yes - very normal, especially in retail where it's often easier to cover full weeks than random days.

While an employer can dictate annual leave, they have to do so fairly and unequally. If there is even one other instance of another employee being allowed single days off then the policy will not stand up. Is he part of the GMB Union?