forced holiday in christmas?

Question

I offer my staff 20 days holiday - also 8 public holidays - but we plan to close all of christmas - 4 extra days can i force my staff to take them from theor holiday allowance if they havent already taken them .whats legal opinion -

Answer 1

Yes you can. Obviously you can't make them take the three Bank holidays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day but you can force them to take the interlinking days or they could take them off without pay if they have used up their holiday allowance. You really need to bear this in mind for next year when allocating their holidays.

Answer 2

Most companies I have worked for expect their staff to take the Xmas break from their holiday allowance. We had to save 4 days this year. My employers are more generous with holidays than you however, giving us 26 days, with an extra day after 2 years. I have often offered to work over Xmas as I am not Christian, but EVERY employer without exception ( including, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Jew as well as Western National have ALL INSISTED that we close for Christmas - Everyone seems to want to celebrate it in one way or another.

Answer 3

I don't think that you can do so within the terms of the employment contract you offered your workers. Better that you should speak to them and explain that you meant that these 4 days were not extra but included within the calculation of the 20 vacation days. You can get feedback from your employees on this point and those who do not agree with your point of view are likely the ones who will sue you if you don't give them their 20 plus 4 extra vacation days.

My free advice is that you should make it quite clear in calendar year 2008 that those extra days are automatically included in the calculation of the 20 vacation days and get it in writing that your employees understand and agree to this calculation of their 20 vacation days. I think calendar year 2007 is probably a lost cause for you.

Answer 4

An employer can make employees take any or all their holiday entitlement at a given time, providing you give them sufficient notice. The notice must be twice as long as the period of holidays. If you are closing for 1 week, you must give 2 weeks notice. As an employer you can seek free advice from your local CAB, just to keep yourself right. An employee who has worked for you for a number of years may not take kindly to being told they must take these holidays and seek advice.

Answer 5

I think you are about to do something inconsistent and illegal.

Let's say employee #1 has 4 days of vacation left, and you tell him, oh, by the way, I'm counting those 4 days when we shut the shop.

Let's say employee #2 has 2 days of vacation left, what will you do, take two and forget the other 2 or count these 2 as days off without pay? If you just forget about the days, I guarantee you the employees who lost 4 days of vacation will notice.

I don't even know if you can legally furlough the employees for just 4 days and then offer to pay them if they have vacation days available. Check with your lawyer--furloughs have time frames for notifying the employee that there will be one.

Answer 6

I have heard of this before, provided you told them at the start of their annual leave year that they would need to take the whole Xmas week off, the answer is yes. If you have only just decided to shut down then you could be on a very slippery slope to trouble. Not to mention a huge level of unpopularity with sneaky policies. Might be worth considering a compromise, especially if business has ben good

Answer 7

The day the holiday occurs is irrelevent. It is considered time off.

You are not legally obligated to give time off for any religious holiday, unless you give SPECIAL consideration to other people because of religion.

For example, the majority of business are closed on Christmas, therefore, it would not make good business sense for you to stay open...even if you were not a Christian...so you can give that time off if you wish.

However, MOST business are NOT closed throughout Hannakah, therefore it would not make busines sense for you to be open....and it is not legal descrimination for you to require your Jewish workers (if you have them) to work.

There is nothing in any law that states you must give holy holidays off, unless you extend that courtesy to other employees.

You see how it works?

I only know this because I had an employee once that was Wiccan...and she was a good employee..until she said I discriminated against her because I wouldn't give her all of her Wiccan holidays off...so I consulted with an employment attorney, and that is what was explained to me.

Answer 8

You can't force them but you can give them the option of using their holidays or not getting paid for those days that do not fall on bank holidays.

Answer 9

If in UK - no not at this notice.Whst you can do is to announce at te start of your next annual leave year that x days need to be reserved for the christmas shutdown - however you can only do this if it is written in to your T&C's that the company can state when a/l can be taken..

good luck

Answer 10

The other two answered correctly. You need to give them the choice of unpaid, or use their holidays. Look forward to a bevy of 2 weeks notices.