returning holiday problems

[voyagerfan]

Returning mid august, Got the whole years quota of holiday to use up from mid aug till the end of the year. asked for two weeks off at the beginning of Sept as my Ds starting school.
Not allowed as it would 'disrupt my settling in'.
Asked for the first day of school off and one day a week off until christmas.
Not allowed as it would "disrupt the team".
Gutted, really really want to see ds into school. If I have to work that day I wouldn't be able to either see him into school or collect him from school.

Can they make me to take it all before I go back to work and then have hardly any holiday until the end of the year? Also am allowed to carry over 9 days to next year. Can they get me to carry over all those days rather than take them?

They can't make you take it while you are still within your year maternity leave, that would be up to you to request - if you'd rather be on unpaid maternity leave during that time then that's fine.

They don't have to allow you to take it whenever you want (although they do sound a bit mean).

Whether you are allowed to carry over 9 days to the next year depends on what your employer's carry over policy says, and how many days holiday you get in total. If you've taken at least 4 weeks actual time off on holiday during the holiday year, then yes you could carry the rest over.

Whether they can make you carry it over again depends on their own policy.

thanks

Without commenting on your specific situation, I would say that you have to push back on them. You have a certain amount of holiday and you need to take it at some point within a certain window. If it is not acceptable for a given week, then ask them to say when it is acceptable. I'm sure you will find that what they find acceptable isn't very far from what you actually want.

I can maybe understand the refusal for the one day a week then, but i consider it very unreasonable that you can't take one day for your dc's first day at school. Unless everyone else has that day off already.