Help. A question about Annual Leave.

Hi Ladies, just looking for some advice.

So DF has been working his butt off over the xmas / new year period (he works in retail for a large well known company). 2 months ago he asked to have our son's first birthday off (this Sunday) taken as annual leave. The boss fluffed around about it for ages saying he would get back to him, Tom continued to ask until he said yes. Anyway a week before xmas his boss said "no, you cant have it off".

Tom pulled his boss into a meeting with the assistant manager and himself to let them know how disheartened he was working for the company and then his boss said "yes, you can have the day off". 2 weeks have passed and Tom has just called home to say his boss has changed his mind and now cant have this sunday off.

We have our friends invited (some of which are Toms) and the cake, decorations are all organised. Tom has missed so many other occassions and he really wanted to be here for his sons birthday. I feel like throwing the towel in at the moment.

Is there anything he can do. Isn't it illegal to cancel someones annual leave 2 days before they intended to take it?

This particular retailer has been sneaky about this type of stuff before, they still have their full staff plus their xmas temps working up until close on Sunday evening.

Grrrr. I think he needs to just tell them its not on, hes taking it off and if he kicks up a stink to say hes going over his head and maybe to Employment law.

Help. Tom works so hard, doing many extra hours unpaid, often called in to work on his days off and basically bends over backwards for his boss.

Any advice? Many thanks.

RANT RANT RANT

Hi Mel

He couldn't say much on the phone as he had customers to serve, so will have to wait til he gets in at 7pm.

I don't think they have a formal system in place for applying for annual leave, then again they might, something I need to ask him.

What I do however find interesting is that yesterday Tom mentioned that he may look into a store transfer as we would be relocating shortly. I can't help but wonder if this may have thrown a spanner in the works. Yet his boss dropped him off home last night, both seemed to be getting on and having a couple of beers together.

Could be his boss is throwing his toys.

That is really unfair!

Leaglly, I am pretty sure it depends on the employer (could be wrong here!) as to how much notice they need to give for change of roster - get him to look over his contract and see what they state in there.

lilfatty, I don't think they legally have to grant you annual leave if they have a reason not to - it is an agreed time between the two parties, however as they have said yes and now have said no and changed the roster, I think it would fall under whether they can change it so close to the annual leave day.

monkey33 .. Im pretty sure they would need a valid reason

We NEVER say no to staff asking for leave (if they have it owing to them). Actually we have a hard time getting our staff to use their leave

Yeah it actually works out more expensive to the company if your staff dont take leave.

We ended up having to pay out one staff member 24 weeks leave! Thats a phenominal amount of $$ to come out of the company cashflow.

I know when I worked for a very large company they had a certain number of AL days per roster, and if that day was full on your roster then you couldn't get the AL day that day. But there was a paper trail with the AL so you could prove it.

I hope the other person that was in the meeting does help him get the day off.

What a clever bunny you are lizzle. I'll remember that for when I get a new job this year.

How'd you get on Tara? I hope Tom has managed to get the day off tomorrow .

And happy birthday to Phee. I hope you all have a great day. Hard to believe he's 1 huh

It all comes down to what is in the Employment Agreement and Company Policies. Most companies require a certain amount of notice to be given before taking leave and it must be signed off by the employer and the manager, especially if you are taking a long period off, and they reserve the right to cancel annual leave. They may also have a policy about not allowing employees to take leave during peak trading periods - like pre and post Xmas. I know when I was the HR Manager of a retail outlet our policy was not to let anyone take annual leave during December.

Frankly I'm surprised they aren't letting take time off given how things are in retail atm and that he's been there for about 18 months. He will have about six weeks leave built up so they should be encouraging him to take it. Perhaps they need all hands on deck for the extended hours/sale period. Especially if he's one of the more experienced employees.