Doubt about employment

[rasamang]

Hi there.

I have been working for my current UK employer for 7 years. Since the pandemic, I have been working from home (IT sector) and going to the office once a week. Most of my family lives back in my home country (10 hours away from here) and it has been nearly 4 years that I haven't visited them. In the UK it's the 4 of us (me, wife and 2 daughters).

A relative back in my home country is going through a surgery around February/March (not life threatening but she lives alone and there is no one from the family that she could really much on) and I have decided to book tickets to visit her and the rest of my and my wife's family from February-March. Apart from that, one of my daughters (baby) and we wanted her to be seen by the family.

Although my employer usually allows up to 3 weeks holidays, depending on the case, they can flexibilize, I went ahead and booked the tickets and in parallel requested to work remotely from there in the period which I was supposed to be back to the UK. The employer rejected the additional days and approved the part of the leave only. They have explained that because around this time we'll be delivering up an important project and coming physically to the office would be mandatory - although my line manager doesn't think this would be needed.

The main reasons I took the bold move were:
1. Money is very short these days and I am the only financial provider to my family (wife and 2 daughters). The price I paid was the cheapest and any other period was way more expensive
2. My oldest daughter is still in nursery and it makes easy for her to be absent and not have major consequences
3. They have refused the additional days and I ended up resigning and finding another job. I am a very hard worker and my managers do recognize that - I thought this could have helped with them making it flexible for me to work from abroad.

The situation, along with other personal issues shook me a lot and I ended up getting sick leave and started suffering from anxiety (now I am on medication + talking therapy). I went on sick leave for 18 working days.

Some of the things which worry me are family related and the fact that I haven't seen them for a while is definitely something that played a big role in the whole thing.

In a nutshell:
-I got 3 weeks leave approved
-My last day with the company will be on 07/03
-I will be abroad from 08/02-13/03

So my will was to work from abroad for 7 additional days (27/02-07/03), which of course is not something my employer is happy to accept.

My line manager said that he doesn't see issues if I work remotely from abroad, but it was up to his superiors and the company's policies whether I could do that or not.

My question would be then what the consequences are in case I refuse to work during this period. I have made clear to my line manager that my intention is good and this isn't what I wanted to do, but work from abroad (my work can be done fully remote) during this period. When I talk about flexibility, I know that other people have already done that (of course every case is different).

My line manager said that his superior could go extra miles to make my life more difficult in case I refuse to come to the office during this 7 days period. He also mentioned that this could cause some damage with my new employer (they have already provided good references and I have already signed the contract with them) - is this really possible? He's also mentioned a threshold for being on sick leave and nearly approached that and if I had, this would be visible in a way by other employers.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you.

[ULA]

Firstly just a point to recommend as you move forward into your new employment. Do not book a holiday i.e. flights etc until you have had approval from your employer. Just because you request holiday and especially for any extended period does not mean to say your employer will say yes, so make sure you have employer approval before finally booking the actual holiday.

Leaving aside for the time being that you have resigned. Your employer asking you to come into the office for the final stages of a project would be considered a reasonable request and something that you would be required to comply with. Those 7 days you are still abroad would technically be unapproved holiday and as such the company could consider you absent without leave (AWOL) and not pay those 7 days.

In terms of your new employer references have been obtained and your contract has been signed I am not sure what your current employer could potentially do. However, the absolute worst case scenario is that the new employer withdraws the offer of employment but to do this they would have to give you either statutory or the notice in your contract whichever is the greater.

Do you know if you have enough paid leave entitlement up until your termination date to take what would be 22 days holiday which is a question that would be good to have an answer to.