Refused leave over half term whilst colleagues are being able to take leave

[Spider999]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with this query.

I am being refused leave over half term week, my employer citing business need. I am requesting it because I have young children and I need to look after them. I submitted my original leave request giving my employer three week's notice of the leave I wanted to take.

Our workload has now unexpectedly increased and I am being told that I cannot have that leave. However, colleagues who already had leave booked are still being allowed to take it. No leave has been cancelled. This leaves me as the only team member with childcare responsibilities who is being made to work that week, and I actually do believe there are enough staff available. The employees at my grade would be staffed at 85% that week in terms of hours, even if I wasn't there (I work part time hours spread over three days). There is one other colleague at my grade who has leave approved, the rest of those taking leave are all managers.

I have only taken one day's leave since Christmas working all over the Easter holidays and having to do lots of overtime at great personal inconvenience. I was not able to take all my leave entitlement last year, although was allowed to carry this forward (equivalent to two weeks), so it's not as if i've had lots of time off.

This seems unfair to me, but wondered if anyone could advise?

Thanks in anticipation.

[MIKE770]

Ula may be able to advise

[anmarj]

Can you ask one of your colleagues if they would give up the week? Ask them nicely and they may help. Employers can dictate when holiday is taken. I have childcare and work full time, holiday is booked really quickly in our place. i had to work the first week of easter holidays this year because there were no slots available for me to book off the two weeks and i was late in deciding ehat we were doing. Just because your colleagues don’t have children doesn’t mean they should be refused because you have children. Its about who gets in first.

[Spider999]

Thanks for the replies, but all of the colleagues taking leave have children. I am the only member of the team with children not being allowed to take leave. My leave request would have been granted if I'd have put my request in the few days earlier (for which I am now kicking myself.) And I do genuinely believe there is sufficient cover without me working that week.

I work for a council that has recently become a unitary authority. The department that would originally have handled the work in question totals 3 full time members of staff. Without me working that week, there would be 6 full time employees handling the work.

[anmarj]

At the end of the day, childcare is not the responsibility of your employer. They can say whether its granted or not.

We are a small office, but our leave is decided by the whole of the network. If the network is booked at capacity, even if our office has space, they can refuse, doesn’t matter how many are left that can handle the work.

[Spider999]

The thing is, when the request was originally refused, my line manager said that the decision was out of her hands and that it was her manager's decision (who is the manager of our entire team). I took this as an invitation to contact him directly. He told me that he had just asked that leave be "managed" over the next few weeks and he was sure a compromise could be reached, so I went back to my manager asking for at least some leave that week, if not all of it. She has again refused it. It feels she is being deliberately obstructive.

[ULA]

Like most companies I presume booking holiday is on a "first come, first served" type scenario. Unfortunately school holiday periods can always be a bit tricky to manage and your employer can refuse a request for annual leave.

All you can do is try and point out that you feel your tasks can be adequately carried out by your remaining team members but ultimately your employer can still refuse to agree to you taking that time off.

[Spider999]

Thanks Ula.

There is no official "first come, first served policy" at work. I will talk to my manager to ask why exactly I am needed given the cover already available that week, or otherwise see if there I not some compromise to be had.

If she still refuses to budge, given what the senior manager has already told me (that a compromise should at least be possible), I may take it further.