holiday entitlement question?

LegacyUser

I have a question about holidays, maybe someone in here can shed some light on this issue? I don't think it's really about our entitlements as far as rights go, there probably isn't any legal obligations on the employer's part. It's just more of a proposed solution that I'm looking for- here goes!


I work in a shop with around 35 other members of staff, management included. Each employee is entitled to have 22 days paid leave throughout the year, however my employer requests we submit our holidays for the entire year by the end of January and they are allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis; anyone who doesn't submit holidays by the end of January will have them allocated automatically by management. However, the number of employees permitted to take holidays in any given week is restricted to 3 or 4 at the very most because they are worked out on a percentage basis and holiday pay is not permitted to exceed 12% of the weeks' wages for the shop. (This means that employees who work more hours will increase the % and it is problematic if three full time employees are on holidays at the same time)

However, given that this is done on a first-come-first-serve basis, employees are urged to book holidays as quickly as possible to avoid disappointment. (Hence being told to submit holiday request forms in January) Although this year, I made attempts in February to book holidays for the final two weeks of October only to be told that the weeks in question were full, even though it was 9 months in advance. Also, by March we were told that holidays were all booked up until September so nobody could book anything prior to then. I just wonder, is the employer technically allowed to do this? I know there is no legal requirement for them to allow employees to take holidays whenever they please, but if efforts are made by the employee to book time off as far as 4 or 5 months in advance, surely best efforts should be made to give them that requested time off? Several of my colleagues, myself included, all suffered as a result of this rigid system and many of us missed out on holiday weeks that we would have liked to take because we didn't book them in January and did not realise that that point that we would need time off during the year. The whole system seems to go completely in favour of the company rather than the employees at all and it means that we are expected to know what holidays we're taking for the entire year in January and are likely to be allocated random, left over weeks if we don't act hastily and submit our holidays first. There must be another way around this?

Anyone have any suggestions/input? Any will be greatly appreciated! :P

wmpdd3

Yes, your employer can decide when you take your holidays.

Giving you the limited chance to apply for the weeks you want will make the porcess a little bit easier to plan.

Where I work, its 250 employees, 10% holidays per week. All holiday sheets are in before 31st of March without fail. It usually works out OK, atleast you know in March you have you summer holidays and can plan them.

LegacyUser

Yeah, I had a feeling that they would be entitled to make those requests... it's just a shame that they don't seem interested in trying to sort out a better approach because so many people are missing out. I, for one, don't know by January when I'm planning to go away during the year!

Thanks for your reply!

the_syco

Although you can't apply for holidays, you can let it known nicely to the boss that you're looking to get holidays off at a certain time: I'm assuming this is how holidays are booked before you can even book them.

Corruptedmorals

This is common. January is a bit early alright, for the whole year. Where I work is done in two stages, spring/summer holidays are already done and autumn/winter (except not December..) will be done around March. Companies are not going to allow free rein with holidays, how could they? They could end up with 3 from the same small department gone for a week. Is has to be done with limits. They are already trying to make it easier for their employees by encouraging you to sign up for your weeks asap in January to avoid dissapointment. Most will also say please don't book holidays abroad or whatever until your holidays are confirmed.

Tipp man running

I can understand your frustration OP but it is necessary to make sure you don't get caught short of staff at any one time...I work for a production company, 40 of us in total and only four are allowed to be off at any one time...next years holiday calendar has just been opened by the manager and most of the popular dates during the summer are already full up...you can book any time you like and as long as there isn't 4 off you'll get the date but obviously the earlier you book the more choice of dates you'll have.

LegacyUser

Yeah, I guess it does make sense for them with regards to departments... it's just frustrating now because I'm hoping to go away at the end of next year but I probably won't know until June whether it's going ahead and by that stage it'll be too late. It's just mad because they never had this problem until last year. Hours being cut and all that, I suppose.

Thanks for your help, everyone!