Employment Help Needed Please

[Wycombe Fox]

I'm after some help if possible please. Any help gratefully received - thank you.

 

My partner is a Senior Day Care Assistant in a care home and she was last week issued a new procedure/rules for booking her annual leave which runs from April to March each year. The wording is as below and, to me, it seems very restrictive and one-sided. I particular;

 

a. Is it legal to require an employee to have all of their leave booked by the end of month 4 (1st August)?

b. Is it legal to put a restriction on annual leave over the Christmas/New Year period? The number of residents is the same as the rest of the year.

c. The rules state that if any leave hasn't been booked by 1st August then they will automatically book it for you - again, is this legal?

d. It is also policy that if a Senior Day Care Assistant takes, say, one day off in a week then no other Senior Day Care Assistant can take any time off in that week at all which is so restrictive.

 

Anyway, the policy;

 

Since the start of the financial year (1^st of April) you have to plan and request your annual leave (A/L).

 

As part of the Home’s Protocol, no Annual Leave maybe taken between the 15^th of December until the 3^rd of January.

 

Annual Leave that has not been booked by employees by 01/08/2024 will have their annual leave automatically booked by management.

 

To book your annual leave please see the Deputy Home Manager in person so you will be given access to the Booking register (No written notes – No messages)

 

To maintain a flawless and uninterrupted service for our residents the following rules must be obeyed on every unit and department.

 

Senior Day Care Assistant

Only 1 Senior Care Assistant on Annual Leave per week.

 

Day Care Assistants

Only 3 Care Assistants on Annual Leave per week.

 

If your try to request A/L on a week that the maximum number of the employees allowed has been reached - Your request will not be granted.

 

Please book your A/L early to avoid disappointments.

[Trumpet]

I used to work for a large department store and they banned holiday during peak time, December through to January. I can’t imagine they’d have broken any laws, so I think they can do that.

[MPH]

Some of that is unfortunately part of working within the care industry… working with vulnerable people. You just can’t have everyone  off at the same time. That’s just common sense. It’s also fairly normal practice to not have many people off over Christmas for the same reasons.

 

the part that’s new to me is them booking the annual leave for you. Also, I personally don’t know my annual leave that far in advance so that one is a tough one too..but I doubt it’s illegal for them to do that but it’s worth checking! 
 

is she part of a Union? It might be worth taking this to them to see what they think. Also, there’s so many care homes around that she she can vote with her feet if she doesn’t like it..

[Guest David Oldfields Gate]

47 minutes ago, Wycombe Fox said:

I'm after some help if possible please. Any help gratefully received - thank you.

 

My partner is a Senior Day Care Assistant in a care home and she was last week issued a new procedure/rules for booking her annual leave which runs from April to March each year. The wording is as below and, to me, it seems very restrictive and one-sided. I particular;

 

a. Is it legal to require an employee to have all of their leave booked by the end of month 4 (1st August)?

b. Is it legal to put a restriction on annual leave over the Christmas/New Year period? The number of residents is the same as the rest of the year.

c. The rules state that if any leave hasn't been booked by 1st August then they will automatically book it for you - again, is this legal?

d. It is also policy that if a Senior Day Care Assistant takes, say, one day off in a week then no other Senior Day Care Assistant can take any time off in that week at all which is so restrictive.

 

Anyway, the policy;

 

Since the start of the financial year (1^st of April) you have to plan and request your annual leave (A/L).

 

As part of the Home’s Protocol, no Annual Leave maybe taken between the 15^th of December until the 3^rd of January.

 

Annual Leave that has not been booked by employees by 01/08/2024 will have their annual leave automatically booked by management.

 

To book your annual leave please see the Deputy Home Manager in person so you will be given access to the Booking register (No written notes – No messages)

 

To maintain a flawless and uninterrupted service for our residents the following rules must be obeyed on every unit and department.

 

Senior Day Care Assistant

Only 1 Senior Care Assistant on Annual Leave per week.

 

Day Care Assistants

Only 3 Care Assistants on Annual Leave per week.

 

If your try to request A/L on a week that the maximum number of the employees allowed has been reached - Your request will not be granted.

 

Please book your A/L early to avoid disappointments.

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. That is common.

 

Sorry dude.

 

[UniFox21]

The automatically having holiday booked for you feels odd. 

 

But all the rest I've experienced in a few different roles in different areas. 

[Spiritwalker]

B and D are definitely legal, A and C while very unfair are most likely also legal.

I guess your wife doesn’t have a strong bargaining unit in the care home or I would

expect them to be challenging these changes.

[Benguin]

I manage hours and holiday liability for a large leisure and tourism company that mostly hires 18-21 year olds on a seasonal basis. All of the things you have posted are legal and pretty common in my sector, particularly forcing holiday. The rule for forcing holiday is that the employer must give twice as many days notice as the leave they are forcing. For example if I am forcing 5 days holiday on an employee, I have to give them 10 days notice. They are entitled to rebook those days elsewhere within that time constraint. 
 

red, amber and green zones for holiday is vital in a lot of industries. For instance our busiest months are may and june and we will only approve holiday requests for exceptional circumstances. 

[Clever Fox]

1 and 2 seem fine. If you can't decide when you want your own holidays then it's reasonable that the Company will allocate you holiday dates as they must provide you with Holidays.

 

Though A lot of this is unnessary. The simple rule a lot of small Companies use where full cover is needed from the Staff is to aply Holidays according to Seniority. Some also offer it on a roll over basis. That is if you have first pick this year you have last pick next year.  Then the Staff usually just work it out between themselves.

 

 

 

[Costock_Fox]

1 hour ago, UniFox21 said:

The automatically having holiday booked for you feels odd. 

 

But all the rest I've experienced in a few different roles in different areas. 

Definitely not illegal, happens to my other half working for an airline.

[FoxesDeb]

I work in the tourism industry and what you describe is also how our holiday works.

[ozleicester]

 

[Foxdiamond]

As others said probably legal but it stinks. Imagine having to pre book all leave by 1st August not knowing what might crop up and no days left to use.  

[Sampson]

2 hours ago, MPH said:

Some of that is unfortunately part of working within the care industry… working with vulnerable people. You just can’t have everyone  off at the same time. That’s just common sense. It’s also fairly normal practice to not have many people off over Christmas for the same reasons.

Yeah this really.

 

It sucks, but there just are certain industries where you can only book holidays off at a certain time else it could not only screech to a holt an entire industry that's important for sustaining a society but put people's lives in danger. Unfortunately any job where you're in care, health, tourism or service is inevitably going to be like this, there's no real way round it even if I have obvious sympathies for the workers.

[Unabomber]

Wow what a joke that all is. Should be able to book holiday as and when you want it 

[Arkie Bennett]

Unionise.

[Otis]

Ask your employer what is the exact reason why they require 7 months notice for a day's holiday.

[MPH]

Let’s just hope she doesn’t get sick for a week at sometime 

[RobHawk]

All seems pretty fair to me apart from booking it all by the 1/8/24. That's bit seems a bit nuts

[Parafox]

4 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

As others said probably legal but it stinks. Imagine having to pre book all leave by 1st August not knowing what might crop up and no days left to use.  

 

Unpaid/compassionate/emergency leave?

 

Payback shifts? This worked in EMAS. Take a shift off at short notice as long as you pay back an equivalent shift or accept a shift given to you.

 

2 hours ago, Unabomber said:

Wow what a joke that all is. Should be able to book holiday as and when you want it 

 

Unworkable in the care/leisure/service/hospitality/NHS/health sectors/emergency services, as well as many others.

Edited 28 January by Parafox

[Foxdiamond]

3 hours ago, Sampson said:

Yeah this really.

 

It sucks, but there just are certain industries where you can only book holidays off at a certain time else it could not only screech to a holt an entire industry that's important for sustaining a society but put people's lives in danger. Unfortunately any job where you're in care, health, tourism or service is inevitably going to be like this, there's no real way round it even if I have obvious sympathies for the workers.

The cynical part of me thinks this is less to do with looking after the people needing care and more to ease the life of senior management. For example a Senior Day Assistant takes Monday off so this prevents another booking say the Friday in the same week. Why? 

[Trav Le Bleu]

8 hours ago, Trumpet said:

I used to work for a large department store and they banned holiday during peak time, December through to January. I can’t imagine they’d have broken any laws, so I think they can do that.

Standard Royal Mail policy since the year dot.

 

A lot of the other stuff is very similar to how Royal Mail does it's holiday schedule. I had to reserve my holiday for April 23 - March 24 at the start of last September.

[Wycombe Fox]

Thank you so much for the replies. They have been helpful for my partner to consider which parts of the policy to politely challenge and which ones to leave. She isn’t militant or confrontational in any way but doesn’t understand the reasons behind a and d.

 

I’ll let you know what happens.

 

Thanks again.

[MPH]

3 minutes ago, Wycombe Fox said:

Thank you so much for the replies. They have been helpful for my partner to consider which parts of the policy to politely challenge and which ones to leave. She isn’t militant or confrontational in any way but doesn’t understand the reasons behind a and d.

 

I’ll let you know what happens.

 

Thanks again.

 

Be careful about explaining to them which days she is unhappy about not being able to take off. 
 

 

id hate for them to be upset if she was sick on those days…

[PAULCFC]

If it's a decent company they will be understanding about(Don't know weather you have any)Child care etc.

[RobHawk]

10 minutes ago, Wycombe Fox said:

Thank you so much for the replies. They have been helpful for my partner to consider which parts of the policy to politely challenge and which ones to leave. She isn’t militant or confrontational in any way but doesn’t understand the reasons behind a and d.

 

I’ll let you know what happens.

 

Thanks again.

I can't speak for the care home, but if you look at it from their point of view, they need the same cover and support to the residents 365 days a year. 

 

They would therefore recruit something like 110% of the staff they need, with the other 10% being covered by holidays etc. 

 

Ideally they would want that 10% spread over the whole year. Never works that perfectly, but that's the least way for a business to run. 

 

My only thoughts with the book by August thing, is they have had issues with people not booking their leave. And therefore it becoming problematic when they all try and book the last few weeks or else lose it. I know I had issues in my store with this first year as manager.