Unauthorised Holidays

Problem

An employee asked for the day off, however you were short staffed and so had to refuse, he asked again a second time and you refused for the same reason. You thought he now understood, however he went and took the day off anyway, how should you deal with this?

The Law!

Providing you comply with the annual leave requirements that are found within Working Time Regulations 1998, you can restrict when the holidays are taken. This means you can prevent people taking holidays at times which are always busy. You can also refuse holidays outside this period. This could be for many reasons, such as periods of been short staffed. However rules or restrictions of annual leave should be incorporated into a holiday leave policy, this will ensure that employees know exactly what’s going on.

Policies

If you already have a holiday leave policy then the afore mentioned employee will be much easier to deal with, simply because you have a document to prove you position on taking unauthorised holiday leave. It should also clarify any limitations on taking leave and when these limitations apply. Reasons such as needing to maintain cover in times of short-staffing are quite reasonable. It should also state how much notice an employee must give and how holiday requests are to be made. If you don’t have a policy then it’s not going to be quite so easy. Its also a good idea to state that a manager’s signature is required on the holiday request form, also make a note of any unauthorised absence.

Unlikely

Before jumping to conclusions its always best to ask the employee why he took the day off, however unlikely it may be its always possible that the employee had a doctors appointment that he didn’t wish to discuss, in this case ask for proof. If he admits to just taking the day off for nothing of importance then subtract it from his holiday entitlement the usual way. You may think you have the right to take this away from his wages, however if there’s no contractual provision that allows for this then the employee could succeed in a claim for an unlawful deduction from wages.

Disciplinary proceedings are a last resort, however they are a useful deterrent to help ensure that your employee doesn’t abuse your policy.