A bit of employment law advice please

[Conquistador]

Due to the nature of my job, I'm much busier during school terms than in school holidays and half terms etc. The short story is, I'm a private chauffeur/driver (call it what you will) and my last job of day is usually picking up from a private school. If I'm not around to do it, the parents end up doing it, but as I'm always around then this isn't ever an issue.

This hasn't been expressed in any contract I've signed during my employment, it was just mentioned in an email a few days ago that I should now be taking holidays days when kids aren't at school.

Before all this was mentioned, I already had a couple of days booked and approved throughout the year which are in school terms, so I would hope that these can't be cancelled as I've made some plans which can't be cancelled easily.

I accept that certain companies may restrict when employees can and can not take time off during the year, for example someone like John Lewis might not want workers taking two weeks off in December.

So where do I stand?

 

[John]

Head of HR in our house is the Mrs so I've emailed her - will post up her advice!

 

[Sp!ke]

Assuming that you are employed, not self employed, what does your contract of employment state regarding holidays?

If I were you, I would try and work with your employer by negotiating rather than take up any legal fight with them at this stage. If they have already approved days off, I think you should be OK with those dates.

Whether or not you can live within the confines of restricted holiday dates looking beyond these dates is the bigger issue. Holidays are significantly more expensive outside term time so this could result in financial loss to yourself. Has this financial loss been taken into consideration or been compensated for in some way? If not, perhaps you can use it to assist you with negotiations.

 

[bing]

+1 with spike . Self employed or not your best approach right now is to sit down with them. It won't be easy as most private employers do expect that you take time off when they are on holidays , especially if you're the only chauffeur in the house. I'm surprised this wasn't made clear when you accepted the job ? .

I understand that it's expensive to take time off during half/end of term, but I'm afraid in most cases this the norm for family Chauffeurs . However, a good guv'nor will usually compensate this with a good bonus or bung dde01

Good luck !

 

[flango]

+2 With Sp!ke this is a minefield, holiday off take and restricting taking leave is a the subject of many a litigation. Easy to work with your employer and negotiate

 

[John]

This is what I am advised!

Most employers would honour dates that have already been booked and agreed, however they are also within their right to ask a member of staff to change a annual leave date due to business reasons.

With regards to new dates, an employer can specify when annual can and cannot be taken, and this would not normally be a contractual change, so can happen with a period of notice. (if it is not in the contract then it is not contractual, and therefore the employer can make changes).

www.gov.uk is the best site for any HR advice states the following:

When leave can and can’t be taken
Employers can:
- tell their staff to take leave, e.g. bank holidays or Christmas
- restrict when leave can be taken, e.g. at certain busy periods

 

[Deleted member 65149]

This is something that should preferably be in a formal contract signed by you, but email notifications, and even oral, are acceptable in employment law. As others have said, it's best to discuss this with your employer and get clarification of when the new rule comes into force, whether or not there's any compensation for the amendment and whether it prevents you taking your planned holiday.

It may also be worthwhile getting clarification on the degree of importance. So, for instance, are the restrictions flexible? Can you, in exceptional circumstance, take holidays during term time?

My wife's hairdressing business faced similar restrictions because December is always busy, so no holidays were permitted in that month before Christmas. But we made this clear in the contracts and it was never a problem. A thorough employment contract is always worth the effort for the employer and employee, even with a small business. Rules are easy to follow if we know what they are.

 

[Conquistador]

Hmm, OK thanks for the replies. All useful.

Looks like some cooperation and talks are due then. The thought of breaks being triple in price during school holidays did cross my mind.

From day 1 nothing has been written in my contract which states any of this. It was just sent in an email last week that I should now be taking holiday days when school is out.

For the record I am full-time contracted, not self employed.

 

[flango]

The price of going away in School holidays being more expensive is a bit of an Urban myth. We usually have a family holiday every year and my daughter comes with us, she is now working in a school so this limits us to school holidays, the same as it did when she was doing her A levels.

If you book a package holiday then yes it is far more expensive in school holidays, however if you book the flights, transfers and hotel separate it doesnt matter if you go in or out of school holidays the price is the same for a given season.

We've just book Lanzarote for the Spring bank school holidays and I couldn't believe how cheap it was, scheduled flights on BA and a 3* hotel cheap as chips

Looking at booking Cyprus for the summer holiday and makes no difference to price if we go in the 6 week school holidays or push into early September.

Plenty of good deals out there if you are prepared to do the legwork