Any suggestions ? - Holiday

mirwillbeback

My son works in retail store for an absolute c*nt. She has been on everyones cases since she started last year, making life miserable for all the long termers and getting most out.

My young lad works between 6 - 9 hours a week on weekends. He has requested a holiday in ages. In November he asked for a week off after Christmas. The request was taken and he booked his leave. He was then told ( 2 weeks later ) he couldn't take it. Much arguing occurred and he eventually just went on holiday and we rang in sick for him.

The boss then rostered him for the week days that week knowing full well. Anyways, he came back and said he was getting a written warning ( his argument being he was sick Sat / Sun, he had already amended his holiday to go on the Monday ).

Today he recieved a letter saying he was to go to a disiplinary hearing with the possible outcome of being sacked.

What are his rights re the holiday etc, is he entitled to argue the case of 1) he hadnt taken any and 2 ) it took two weeks for the " no " to come back.

Before anyone judges him ( I know he is technically wrong doing what he did ), he had one sick day in two years before this and has gone in for extra hours at short notice where required.

Thanks in advance.

seamus

It's the employer's responsibility to ensure that the employee takes their holiday leave.

Assuming that your son had been there for the whole year, and had done on average, 7.5 hours per week, then his total hours worked for the year would be 390.

To find out what kind of leave he is entitled to, you take 8% of that. So he's entitled to 31.2 hours of annual leave for last year. His employer is legally obliged to ensure that this leave was taken last year, or with the employee's agreement, within the first six months of this year. If your son didn't take any holidays last year, his employer has broken the law.

Now, that's just the basics here. Two things which are key are the nature of the holiday request and the nature of his contract.

If the holiday request was accepted/approved, then they're on shaky ground, because they can't just "unapprove" the request without taking the employee's personal situation into account. This would include whether the holiday had been paid for. If the request wasn't approved, then your son had no right to just take the holiday.

In terms of his contract, does that state what days he works, or could he theoretically be rostered in for any day of the week?

My suggestion would be to ring NERA and ask them these questions. If necessary, ask NERA to ring the employer ahead of the disciplinary hearing.

gerrycollins

the face facts of the matter is that he requested holidays and was refused.

I know from a previos employer (retail) part of the contract had stipulation that you should not book any holidays until confirmation has been recieved.

when was the rota done out? after he called in sick or a week or two before?

How long is he working there? over a year they wont fire him but can go to a written warning(last legs).

2 weeks to be confirmed holidays is normal unless its a small place.