Carrying days forward to next year

Rebel1977

I was told at work by my dictator of a boss that I have 5 days holidays left for the year and that I have to take them before the year is out and I can't carry any days forward to 2013. Does anyone know if this is legal or not under employment law etc as I feel its unfair to force me to take all my days between now and Dec 31st.

Frynge

I think (and only think) they can let them roll over at their discression but that they are ment to be taken within a defined 12 month period.

This is standard in many companies
Calling your boss a dictator won't change that

Irish_Elect_Eng

Yes, it is at the discression of the company/manager.

I allow 5 days roll-over, to be used within 6 months when permission is sought all others are lost. (Note, in 5 years I have never refused a holiday request with good notice, nobody has ever lost a days holidays, everyone plays by the rules)

There are several possible reasons for your employers position:

(1) Planning

People with large holiday balances can cause issues, for example if you are owed 4 weeks and ask to take them all at once, it is very difficult to manager cover. It is a risk to the business.

(2) Health and Safety.

Managers are encouraged (required in some companies) to ensure that employees take their holidays to allow them to relax and de-stress. There are some people that just habitually hoard holidays, for perceived emergencies that never happen. Holidays taken are a great tonic for workplace stress issues.

(3) Finances:

In one company where I worked "Owed Holidays" was the largest outstanding debt that the company had on its books. Some companies limit or forbid carrying days into the ext year for this reason.

(4) He could be a dictator :-)

One Suggestion:

Rather than just ask for the 5 days to be rolled-over, provide your boss with a plan. Explain your need to roll-over holidays this year. Provide him with a booking confirmation for a holiday, information about a training course that you need to take time off for, dates when you need to cut turf :-) or other need. Find out what his concern is and address it, remember you want something from him,dictator or not, a deal an often be made.

For Example: I agreed with one of my team that he could roll over 20 days built up over two years for a 2 month honeymoon, I would not have permitted this to be rolled over without a reason. Happy Employee = Result

Procrastastudy

You have to take your statutory holidays within the year. You and your company don't get to negotiate on that. While you should be planning better your boss should be managing the situation. I've had to 'put people off' because they had holiday owed. It would be illegal for you boss NOT to make you take them off, technically.

Eoin

Procrastastudy wrote: »

You have to take your statutory holidays within the year. You and your company don't get to negotiate on that. While you should be planning better your boss should be managing the situation. I've had to 'put people off' because they had holiday owed. It would be illegal for you boss NOT to make you take them off, technically.

Not 100% sure it would be illegal - the wording seems to be that you must be given the opportunity to take the leave, taking into account your family responsibilities and all that.

But they are absolutely entitled to tell the OP to take the days off before the end of the year, and I would say that the OP's boss is managing the situation. The OP has 2 months in which to take 5 days. That's pretty reasonable IMO.

tatli_lokma

Rebel1977 wrote: »

I feel its unfair to force me to take all my days between now and Dec 31st.

An employer would say it is unfair that an employee gets to dictate when they take holidays! So rather than you rboss being the dictator, you would prefer if it were you who did the dictating! Your boss has a business to run. In addition he is legally required to ensure that you get your statutory minimum leave allowance.As Eoin says, you have 2 months to take 5 days which is hardly unreasonable. One way to use up your hols would be to take the 24th Dec and the 27th & 28th Dec off - a nice full week off for Christmas. You could even take the 31st and then you would have a week and a half off and only have used 4 days. If you have some strong objection to this or a reason why you want to hang onto these days, then as Irish Elect Eng says, let your boss know this and perhaps he will be more willing to make an allowance for you to carry them forward.But if you are not prepared to be reasonable, then no doubt your "dictator" of a boss will literally banish you for 5 days that entirely suit him and there is little you can do about it.

tommyombomb

just curious, what if someone is leaving a company after X amount of years.

Can they come on their employer for holidays they never took over the course of employment.

just curious as otherwise it would mean that the employer did quite from the employee not taking their full 20days

Stheno

tommyombomb wrote: »

just curious, what if someone is leaving a company after X amount of years.

Can they come on their employer for holidays they never took over the course of employment.

just curious as otherwise it would mean that the employer did quite from the employee not taking their full 20days

No.

If company policy is that you take your holidays in the normal leave year, and you did not, that is not your employers fault, unless you were prevented from doing so by your employer.


When you leave a job you are only entitled to be paid for any accrued leave in the current year.

sambuka41

tommyombomb wrote: »

just curious, what if someone is leaving a company after X amount of years.

Can they come on their employer for holidays they never took over the course of employment.

Not legally, it depends on the employer.

For my first job, we were made redundant, store downsized. I hadn't taken holidays in 5 years (I took time off just didn't ask for money those weeks,lived at home, those were the days). They gave me nearly £1,000 (irish pounds at the time). Very decent of him, I didn't expect it and he didn't have to give it to me. I can't imagine that would happen in this day and age

Stheno

sambuka41 wrote: »

Not legally, it depends on the employer.

For my first job, we were made redundant, store downsized. I hadn't taken holidays in 5 years (I took time off just didn't ask for money those weeks,lived at home, those were the days). They gave me nearly £1,000 (irish pounds at the time). Very decent of him, I didn't expect it and he didn't have to give it to me. I can't imagine that would happen in this day and age

I've been paid in lieu of holidays in recent years, but in scenarios where work pressures prevented me from taking them.

sambuka41

Stheno wrote: »

I've been paid in lieu of holidays in recent years, but in scenarios where work pressures prevented me from taking them.

I think that's illegal. I remember looking into it for one of my staff but it was a complete no go with HR. Again, it's only a problem if you have a HR department who are sticklers about these things :rolleyes:

Eoin

sambuka41 wrote: »

I think that's illegal. I remember looking into it for one of my staff but it was a complete no go with HR. Again, it's only a problem if you have a HR department who are sticklers about these things :rolleyes:

Rolleyes away, but they were dead right to say no IMO.

sambuka41

Eoin wrote: »

Rolleyes away, but they were dead right to say no IMO.

Yeah in fairness I agree as well, I just really don't like HR!!!

It was a case of human error in recording (*cough* not by me!!) and employees own monitoring of their leave. Mistakes on both parts but I understand that it could be a difficult thing for the company and HR are only looking out for company; but these things happen.

silja

Most Irish jobs I've had you could not carry over holidays. A couple of ones you could carry a max of 5 days for the first three months (ie till end of March), but had to have them booked by the end of the previous year.

Frynge

I have a number of staff who work 6 days a week as per their contract but in the quite season they usually work four days for 12 weeks to make up their holidays.

When they want a week off they will usually use a build up of bank holidays.

Or as one guy did recently, took six weeks off because of a newborn. He used his four weeks for this year and one week of next years holidays.

Althought a company is not ment to do that, as someone here said a happy employee = results

Stheno

I should have been clearer in my post. I always got my basic holidays but one company allowed us to "buy" extra holidays as part of our benefits, and if we didn't use them we got paid instead.

So not a case of no holidays, more a case of not being able to take extra holidays?