Can my employer refuse me holiday

[Iguessyourestuckwithme]

And then state that because I haven't used the holiday I've lost it with no reimbursement?

It doesn’t sound right. We’re you at all flexible with your dates?

Pretty standard in most work places - your leave will be allocated per year. We are allowed to carry over 5 days and anything which we haven't taken is lost. This is local government.

If you have been applying for leave throughout the year and consistently turned down for operational reasons, it would be deeply unfair to lose the holiday.

If you've hardly taken any holiday because of lockdowns/not wanting to travel during restrictions, your leave year ends 31 March and you've just applied for two weeks leave and been turned down because operational reasons / five colleagues have done the same thing, and you have a clearly stated policy of 'use it or lose it' or 'only 5 days may be carried over' then it's tough really.

They can refuse with notice and may limit how much can be carried over from one year to next or require a balance to be taken within a short period.

In my work we have to book holiday via an app but we can't have more than 2 staff off at once. So sometimes holiday will get refused. Normally if employees have holidays left towards the end of the year they can either work and get paid for holiday days not taken or take holiday when it's quieter in December.

No one can say based on the information.

Employers don't have to authorise holiday. However, they can't block you taking it all. So if they said no to every request for no reason all year, they can't do that.

If you left 2 weeks of holiday til the end of March (with a new holiday in april) but requested at short notice, presuming they would have to give it to, then you would be wrong. They don't. It's up to you to manage your holidays

They aren't obliged to let you carry it over, except in a small amount of circumstances. Such as you are on Mat leave and haven't returned in enough time to take them, as an example.

Lots of small details would change how thise works.

As pp have said , if there are specific business pressures (certain times of year that are particularly busy, end of the year etc, or other people have booked it off further in advance and it puts people at risk ...social care here ) then they can refuse it. Really they should be encouraging you throughout the year to take it at each line management meeting so you don't end up at the end of the year with loads left.

But it's feasible they can refuse it.

My husband isn't allowed to carry any holiday over where he works. He has to use it or lose it

Need more details as others have said. We have to give a month’s notice for leave of one week or more. For short notice A/L of less than a week we have to give a week’s notice and then it’s only granted if doable operationally.
We had to remind people over the past two years to use it or lose it - you should still take a break from work even if you can’t go away.
It would be unreasonable to expect to take all your leave in March without prior agreement or to carry it all over.

In my nhs trust you can't carry over (except for exceptional circumstances eg. If you had leave booked in for March then were off longterm sick you could carry over March's leave)

We do decline some leave if it doesn't leave enough cover. It would depend if you've requested one week over Christmas or in the summer and had it declined and haven't tried to book it in else where or wether you've had repeated requests denied.

I'm assuming that your financial year runs April to April so you only have 2 weeks or so to take it?

My old trust allowed people to take the leave and work bank, my new one doesn't.

Its the staffs responsibility to book leave throughout the year (eg we ask you don't use more than 35% in one quarter). Ultimately by this point I've spoken to members of staff, sent multiple emails telling them they will lose their leave so people that haven't acted will just lose it

It entirely depends on if you've got two days left you could squeeze in by the end of the month or if you have two weeks left that you had forgotten about until now. It also depends how many times you've been declined leave

If you have not been able to take the minimum statutory holiday, it's illegal.

We can't carry it over we can't be paid the hours holiday.

It is a staffing issue but I don't see why I should lose 5 days holiday if I'm doing my best to use them.

@Iguessyourestuckwithme

We can't carry it over we can't be paid the hours holiday.

It is a staffing issue but I don't see why I should lose 5 days holiday if I'm doing my best to use them.

But again. It depends. How many times have you been refused to use those 5 days?

Does your holiday year end 31st march? When did you put your request in?

Could you actually tell us what happened and then you might get some useful advice?

Have you had the legal minimum (28 paid days, bank holidays count) this year?

I'm guessing the leave year ends at the end of the month? Is there any availability, even if it doesn't fit with your prefered dates?

Tough one, they are allowed to decline dates, but have to ensure you have taken the legal minimum.

It all depends on the situation.

If you have left 5 days and not requested them until now then have been told its not operationally possible then YABU

If you have 5 days that have been refused several times over the last year and now are being told there's no time YANBU

As PPs have said, more details are needed

do you have to use it this month?
is there a reason you havent used it so far?

the staffing issue should not be your problem
if other people are off when you want to be off that is tough. you should perhaps have kept an eye on it

They must allow you to use it within the financial year but they can tell you when to take it.

@Elmo230885

It all depends on the situation.

If you have left 5 days and not requested them until now then have been told its not operationally possible then YABU

If you have 5 days that have been refused several times over the last year and now are being told there's no time YANBU

As PPs have said, more details are needed

This. How long have you been trying to take your leave, OP?

They must allow you to use it within the financial year but they can tell you when to take it

This!

I am on Forced Holiday at the moment.

I started in October, you are not allowed time off mid November- early January.

So my manager just gave me random, available days off as I didn't really have specific dates or a holiday booked.

Your workplace should do similar, just have a chat with them.

Blimey this is like trying to get blood out of a stone C’mon OP, lots of people giving useful advice, give us the lowdown!

It depends on whether or not you have taken your statutory 5.6 weeks leave including BH.

If you work 5 days a week this is 28 days including the 8 BH. So if you have a leave allowance of 33 days they could say no to 5 days but not 10.

Work out how many days leave you have taken including BH. If it’s less than 28 write and advise them you are legally entitled to take 28 days leave in your leave year. As you have had leave on (state all dates you had leave refused) refused you will be taking x days leave from x to x.

If they refuse, contact ACAS and lodge a grievance.

If you have taken 28 days and it is the extra occupational leave, you will need to check exactly what your contractual terms are. Then contact ACAS. You may have a case to raise a grievance for unlawful deduction of wages.

An unorthodox approach is to phone in sick and take the same number of days as leave due. Immediately on your return write to HR and state you want those days treated as annual leave, it’s less confrontational than a grievance and you get your leave.