Employee rights - weather conditions

Mikadococo

Is it legal for a company to take your annual leave based on the current weather conditions?

I had to leave work as i wouldn't have reached home if i left any later. A half day has been deducted from my annual leave as a result.

I was also not notified of this before it was taken.

Ms. Chanandler Bong

http://www.employmentrights.ie/en/media/annual_leave.pdf pages 11/12
"The employer decides when holidays are to be taken having regard to
work requirements and subject to his/her taking into account the
need for the employee to reconcile work and any family
responsibilities and the opportunities for rest and recreation
available to the employee. The employer must consult with the
employee or his/her trade union at least one month before the
holidays are due to commence."

http://www.citizensinformationboard.ie/publications/downloads/Emp_Rights_Factsheet3_2008.pdf page 4
"Who decides when annual leave can be taken?
Your employer can decide when annual leave may be taken, subject to a
number of conditions. The employer is required to take into account the family
responsibilities of the employee, the opportunities for rest and recreation
available to the employee, and to consult with the employee (or their union)
at least one month before the leave is to be taken."

Looking at both those documents, your employer is in the wrong to take your annual leave from you as you have not been given the correct amount of notice (1 month). Having said that however, they'll probably just dock your wages if you protest. They may have been doing it just to keep your wages the same as they are every week. Most places run their holiday-planning year inline with the calendar so they may be trying to use up your holidays as well. I know where I work, if you don't pick your days off, they will assign holidays to you on their selected dates.

The weather isn't their fault & if you're not at work, then you can hardly expect them to pay you. Personally I'd see it as the same as someone being out sick. It's through no fault of their own but at the end of the day they're not at work so can't expect to be paid.

Mikadococo

Everyone was let go without penalty an hour and a half after i left. Would this not be a point of contention?

In terms of equality i think this would be an issue...

coffee_cake

I knew this would come up at some stage.
I'm pretty sure leave or flexitime will have to be taken from mine

the thing is the 1.5 hours later business for you, that might be unfair

Eoin

It's annual leave in our company as well.

catreyn wrote:

Looking at both those documents, your employer is in the wrong to take your annual leave from you as you have not been given the correct amount of notice (1 month)

I don't know about that. It's the employee that's not showing up to work - it's not a case of the employer saying "you can't come in today". The alternative is that it's not treated as AL and the employee is treated much more harshly for not turning up, which would be quite unfair.

Mrs OBumble

OP, would you have preferred them to dock your wages?

It's not actually their fault that you live so far away from work.

tenchi-fan

Mikadococo wrote: »

Everyone was let go without penalty an hour and a half after i left. Would this not be a point of contention?

In terms of equality i think this would be an issue...

I don't see how equality comes into it. "Equality" usually refers to areas of discrimination including age, sex, religion, etc.

You can probably choose to take it as unpaid leave rather than annual leave.

The fact that other employees were available to work and were sent home is irrelevant to you. It was the employer's decision to send them home & as the employer is paying their wages they are well within their rights to do so. They all worked an extra 90 minutes, too, and obviously the employer appreciated this.