Holiday Rules

[helpme]

Is there any policy on the amount of holiday taken at one time? A driver has put in for three weeks holiday next year and has been told he needs special permission from the SM to take that amount of time in one go. Is this right or just manager b/s?

[alf]

Nope, with the possible exception of 'peak trade' times where holidays can be retricted, though that in practical terms is fuzzy phrasing.

Odd situation regardless, if anything in regards to booking blocks off, the policy advises for it rather than against it i.e. policy states holidays should be booked as blocks of one week, rather than odd days.

Classic case of "show me the policy".

[oldfashionedplayer]

Is there any policy on the amount of holiday taken at one time? A driver has put in for three weeks holiday next year and has been told he needs special permission from the SM to take that amount of time in one go. Is this right or just manager b/s?

Nope, the forms Must be handed back with a reasonable reason if refused and if they are alternative must be offered, we have Asian colleagues who take the same 6 weeks off each year, so there's nothing for it... I've done the same this year, had a good couple months off, so your manager is B/Sing 

Can happily challenge through colleague help etc too, stores can restrict certain times but if they are they have to restrict it to everyone, however personal day can still be used when it's December to January time and other options of shift swaps etc should be given rather than a flat refusal.

[Redshoes]

If it's before end of March a three wk block is a lot. The ideal is 75% of hols taken before end of Oct. a dept has an allowed target for each week but a dept that has a big head count will also need to allow for catch up hols, as in holidays cancelled due to sick. If it's after April it will probably not be a problem.
It always used to be that a three week block of hols had to be requested by letter to store manager but the reality is the store manager just asks the manager if this will cause a problem, as in can the shift be covered.

[horatiocain]

This was a rule under old policies  however it was for more than 3 weeks.

It was removed several years ago.

[oldfashionedplayer]

Yeah the 75% and 3 week block etc along with the "must be in before end of April" or some cr*p etc, is all just false / removed, you can have as many as you want, if you put in your form on first of April with all your holidays for the next year as the first person, there's literally 0 they can do about it

[Redshoes]

It's still in the online briefs on holidays.

[oldfashionedplayer]

First come first serve basis, if there's no one off, there's no reasonable excuse for not giving it as a holiday... People will take it regardless and work around it the way they want if management just refuse it, not first time I've gone over their heads for mine anyhow.