Employee’s annual leave; entitlement and safeguard

Here comes the sun – employers get ready for an inundation of holiday request forms from your employees, as staff begins to prepare for their holidays.

Although a lot of businesses have a workforce structure that enables adequate cover during holiday season, there are some that struggle due to the lack of staff and or financial resources to provide cover, during the holidays. It is therefore important that employers know their rights and authorise holidays according to the demands of the business.

Minimum annual leave entitlement

Every worker (with the exception of some excluded sectors) is entitled to a minimum of 28 days (5.6 weeks) annual leave, which includes all bank holidays. If the employee works less than 5 days a week, their entitlement must be calculated proportionally. For example if they work 2.5 days a week then this would be 14 days a year. However, there is a cap at 28 days – so employees who works more than five days per week are not entitled to receive more holiday.

Employee cannot demand specific dates for their holidays. Employers can refuse the employee’s request if the time off does not suit your business’s requirements. Furthermore, if you require the staff member to take annual leave due to a predicted quiet period, seasonal office closure, or for any reason that suits the business, then the staff member cannot refuse to take annual leave.

Requests for annual leave

In agreeing or refusing an annual leave request, the employer must be certain that it is done fairly and that it doesn’t discriminate against the employee. For example, if an employee wants to take time off during the busy period to attend a religious festival then you may accommodate this request in circumstances where you would refuse such a request made for leisure purposes.

A note on accrual: if a new employee requests annual leave at the commencement of their employment, you can agree to this if you choose to. However, legally, the employee is only entitled to take annual leave accrued over their first year of employment. This accrual is at the rate of one twelfth of the annual leave entitlement on the first day of each month of that year. This rule prevents employees from taking their full entitlement before they have actually done any work.

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