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EAT Holiday ruling: more good news for employers
Added: 2010-02-09 09:09:12.0With news this week that the UK is crawling its way out of recession, there is another story, this time employment related, that will please employers. According to a new ruling from the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), employees must comply with their employer’s annual holiday policy - or run the risk of losing their holiday entitlement altogether.
The judgement could not come sooner for employers who have been seeking some overdue confirmation on what the law said when staff hadn’t complied with their rules on holiday entitlement.
The ruling came from the case of Lyons vs Mitie in which the claimant’s request for holiday did not comply with the notice requirement set out in his contract of employment. Company policy, as stated in the contract, was that all holiday requests must be submitted at least four weeks prior to the holiday’s commencement. It went on to state that any applications submitted at shorter notice may be considered but that the needs of the business would be considered above the needs of the employee.
In this case, the claimant requested that he take his remaining holiday shortly before the year-end, where, as per his contract, he would lose it since he could not carry it forward into the subsequent year. However, due to staffing problems, the holiday request was refused and seeing as though he would lose his holiday due to this notice restriction, the employee resigned and took his ex-employer to tribunal.
Unfortunately for the employee, in this case the EAT took the employer’s side, thus setting a benchmark for further cases and bringing some clarity to the matter.
Before this ruling, the law regarding notice periods etc and whether they can be enforced by an employer had been unclear. However, employers now have a better idea of their rights when it comes to enforcing such matters, as long as their policies do not make it too difficult for the employee to request leave and are fair in the first place.
Unsure about how this affects your holiday policy? Worried about absence of a company holiday policy? Call Cleardocs on 0845 474 0372.
The content of this blog is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such, or used instead of seeking legal advice.
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