@Aprilx
But it is you that is wrong! How can you have worked in HR for 25 years and not know that, so long as they give sufficient notice, an employer can cancel leave, yes even if it is has been approved.
No....The pp said a notice period is a courtesy. That is not correct and I'm not wrong there. It's in the contract of employment/ Ts and Cs.
An employee has a contractual right to take annual leave and an employer CANNOT just cancel it (even with notice) , ESPECIALLY if the employee is leaving and that results in them not having the opportunity to take the leave, before the end of their employment.
They may have a better chance IF the employee wasn't leaving and had further opportunity to take the leave...but would need a strong case of why they're canceling the leave. Even if they weren't leaving and had booked a holiday and were going away...it would be unreasonable for the employer to cancel it. Would the employer reimburse the holiday cost? Airline tickets, hotel expenses etc
It's reasonable for an employee to book and pay for a holiday after having leave approved and if they were asked to cancel it...it would make a very strong constructive dismissal case.
I find that employers will often try and tell employees certain things as being policy/fact, especially line managers and those in smaller organisations, who really don't know the law. They do it because employees often think managers know what they're talking about and don't challenge it.
I've had to tell line managers on a few occasions that they cannot demand an employee takes their remaining leave as pay, when they resign, but they can negotiate...ultimately the employee has a right to their accrued leave and UNLESS the employment contract is very specific in saying annual leave must not be taken in the notice period... the employer would lose in an ET.
By the sound of it, this employer does have sufficient time to legally cancel the leave.
This would depend on the annual leave policy.. which must be explicit, otherwise an ET would rule in an employees favour.. This is the first thing you need in defending your case at a tribunal, as well as the leave policy.....which states it can be cancelled with X amount of notice...BUT as I've said, if there is no opportunity for her to take the accrued leave before she resigns... she cannot/should not lose her contractual leave entitlement, as this would result in a breach of contract by the employer.
Organisations can't force people to be paid, instead of taking the time off...However, I know from friends that sometimes their organisations will try it on stuff and hope it doesn't get challenged...99 out of 100 times it doesn't.
I see a few HR issues on here and particularly with manual, minimum wage, zero contract jobs, young staff, employers bank on the fact that they won't get challenged and pull stuff like this.
My daughter had a pt job (she was 16 at the time) and the owner told her she wasn't entitled to annual leave because she was on a high hourly rate. I told her he was wrong and she should get it. He still refused, until I wrote, advised him what the law was ... then he coughed up swiftly.
I just hate to see employees treated unfairly, which a lot of companies do. A lot of what they do, is because they get away with it, not because it's legally permissable.