holiday entitlement?

[kittywoo]

my bf wanted to book off a week in the school holidays and went to his employer on the 2nd day of the new year (april) well new holiday year and was told that he could not have any time off as one person at a time is allowed of he works on a shift of 8,but was told it is not per shift it is everyone who is working those nights not just his shift! is this allowed? it seems unfair to me is it legal to do this we cant understand exactly when he can be off as he isnt allowed time off at xmas...
please help!

[joannie10]

dont know if legal or not but certainly do that where I work. They allow only 25% of the team off at anytime. They sometimes widen the net to include other teams as a way of helping you get your time off though.

[kittywoo]

hi thanks for the fast response! just cant belive they all got taken up so quickly its six weeks after all!
thankyou!

[bednobs]

i guess if there are only six weeks and more than 8 people, its simple maths to work out demand could outstrip supply. If there is anyone with 2 weeks, they should give up a week in my opinion. it's pants isn't it? i dont have any children and am constantly getting the rough end of the stick when it comes to holidays etc at the hands of my childed co workers. I would imagine if i had children i would feel very differently though!

however i dont really understand your comment about not knowing when he can have time off as christmas is only 2 days, 1 week at the most, and there are 51 other weeks of the year to chose from.
Anyway, i think the solution is to look at who had what last year and those that didnt have summer should get first chioce this year.

[kittywoo]

what i mean is that he cant take any time of in december or the two weeks after. he asked when he could have time of and they just said he will have to keep checking whats available. also its not one per shift its one person per night my bf works mon to thu on nights and there are two other shifts that rotate on nights so if one person is off from one shift on mon and tue and another off the other shift is off wed, thu, my bf isnt alowed to be off if that makes any sense?

i know what i mean hehe!
by the way thanks all!

[buildersmate]

Well its legal but it sounds a naff employer. He's going to have to decide well in advance when to be off and just book it - if necessary actually booking what to do with the time much later. This business about 'checking what's available' is just daft.
Alternatively consider raising it as a grievance using the company grievance procedure.

[cascarelli]

Nearly every employer will reserve the right to say when you can take time off work. It would be daft it they didn't as all their employees could be gone at the same time otherwise.

As buildersmate says, he will just need to book well in advance. I can't honestly see that raising it as a grievance will do any good though - it would appear from your post that others are managing to book time off ok.