Annual Holiday's? can we be told how much to use at one time?

Question

can a company say to you, that with your annual leave, that you have to take it in blocks of a week, and not odd days< we have been told this, and if we do not agree then we would not have a job there, but many of us said that we would like to perhaps have a fri and mon off to have a long weekend, or just book it off when we wanted it???? they say not, and want us to sign a contract help plz

Answer 1

I don&#039;t think companies can dictate like this .... at least I&#039;ve never heard of it before .... in the UK, generally, people are not expected to take more than two weeks&#039; holiday in one go without &#039;permission&#039; but can take odd days off - so long as they don&#039;t clash with other employees (so that no-one can cover for you) or they don&#039;t conflict with a special time (like if you know major orders or something come in on a Friday) - even then there&#039;s usually discretion about allowing it ..... I would suggest you speak with a union rep or some other legal bod&#039; who specialises in employment law .....

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Answer 2

Most companies have annual leave rosters for their staff drawn up so that works are not disrupted and cause inconveniences for them and their customers. That leave roster should be flexible so that staff can arranged among themselves to take certain holidays with their consent so that arrangements can be made. But asking staff to sign a contract is not a legal way to solve this problem.  

Answer 3

What country?  I guess it depends upon the type of work you do and whether they have to find someone to substitute for you when away.  That may be more difficult on a day by day basis.

We have 2 floating holidays that are normally intended to be taken at any time, but sometimes we are required to take them at a specific time when a regular holiday falls on Tuesday or Thursday (which does give us a 4 day weekend).

Answer 4

In general a company guarantee&#039;s you a certain amount of holiday as one of the terms of employment in your contract. They rarely specify in the contract just how it is taken which gives them room to impose restrictions.  Some companies will shut up shop for 2 weeks in the Summer and and for a week at Xmas that is 3 weeks of your holiday allowance gone whether you like it or not.  Most companies are not over enthusiastic about holiday being taken in dribs and drabs, though they may not actually forbid it.

Answer 5

The annual vacation (or holidays) that you can take or the company you work with suggests you take should be based on the work contract you signed with them. I do know that some private companies can actually put a margin on the amount of time you can take off work as this can affect other staff members, your social insurance payments etc etc., as well as overtime for other members to cover your position. With small companies if you have a lot of days to take within a year it is harder to control workload if the employees take a lot of time off in dribs and drabs, so I can see the reason why this is imposed. My suggestion is to check your contract or with your HR/Personnel department.