staff cant take holidays from April to September as this is the busiest period.

H

hano8

Guest
Hi all ,

I work in the golf industry on a course in Dublin. We have 6 full time staff and a boss. <unneccessary comment removed>.

The club we work for have told us from next year on that no full time staff members can take summer holidays from april to september as this is the busiest time of year.

We have some summer staff that come in to help as well, some of the staff have children so they would be back in school by the time we could take holidays.

My question is can the club do this ,and whats the law on holiday leave?

Cheers all.
 
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Re: work holidays

The company can dictate when annual leave is to be taken.

For instance many factories will have an annual overhaul and require all employees (except maintenance staff) to take their leave at this time.

Search AAM for Annual Leave or Holidays and you will get plenty of hits.

also see this post:
www.citizensinformation.ie, [broken link removed] and www.entemp.ie have information on your statutory rights in relation to taking holidays. Basically full time employees are entitled to a certain amount of paid annual leave but the timing of taking them generally must be negotiated between employer and employee. The employee can't generally just announce that they're off on a whim.

www.citizensinformation.ie Home > Employment > Employment rights and conditions > Leave and holidays

[broken link removed]
 
Re: work holidays

As an employer I thin it is utterly unreasonable to ask staff not to take holidays for the entire summer. If this has not been the case before it amounts to a change in your terms and conditions of employment. It’s short-sighted and stupid.
 
The employer is being unreasonable here. Expecting someone not to take any holidays from April to September inclusive is not taking into account family responsibilites. I am not sure they would get away with not allowing anyone take any "summer holidays" in Summer.

This is from Citizens information
Taking annual leave

It is for your employer to decide when annual leave may be taken, but this is subject to a number of conditions. Your employer must take into account your family responsibilities, opportunities for rest and recreation that are available to you and to consult with you (or your union) at least one month before the leave is to be taken. In addition, annual leave should be taken within the appropriate leave year or with your consent, within 6 months of the relevant leave year. Further holding over (also known as carrying-over) of annual leave at your wish is a matter for agreement between you and your employer.
 
Yes, it is quite common for some employers to do this. E.g. I am in tertiary education. Yes, we have nice long-ish holidays (to recover from some of the night classes we teach...some days 9am to 9pm) that cost a fortune because they are at the busiest and most expensive times of the year. But, I would nearly prefer shorter holidays and more flexibility as to when I can take them, as we are not allowed to take leave at times other than the specified holiday periods on the academic calendar. As a result I have missed my grandparents funerals, my grandmother's 80th, cousin's weddings, etc., as they would have involved travel for a few days away.
 
It looks like holidays are given at the discretion of management . However , its wothwhile trying to work out a compromise
 
Re: work holidays

As an employer I thin it is utterly unreasonable to ask staff not to take holidays for the entire summer.

Utterly unreasonable perhaps but the employer is well within his rights to insist that employees take annual leave at a time that the employer dictates.

It is essential that employers in seasonal industries schedule annual leave for periods of quieter activity.
 
Re: work holidays

Utterly unreasonable perhaps but the employer is well within his rights to insist that employees take annual leave at a time that the employer dictates.

It is essential that employers in seasonal industries schedule annual leave for periods of quieter activity.

Whether its essential or not depends on which side of the fence you are on . ie management or just employee
 
I know an agricultural contractor who does not allow his employees take leave during the silage and corn season.

I think it is perfectly reasonable that employers in seasonal industries dictate when employees take leave. Employees need to be around during the busy periods and can take their annual leave in the less busy periods.
 
I agree with Purple. Custom and practise is such that you have been allowed take summer holidays in the past. This is a change in your terms and conditions and should be subject to negotiation.
 
not in union,the boss has monthly meetings with the committie of the club and blames everything on staffing issiues ,ie staff on holidays ,we know that he has been trying to push for this a long time and it is coming into force next year,we work 5 days a week and have to come in 3 weekend every month at very unsocial hours to get the course ready too so to in force this on an already work overladed staff is very unfair i feel
 
I believe this is unjust on the companies part. They cant just decide this new rule now and believe the staff should just adhere to it. there should be some sort of compensation to the staff if this change should come into play. By all means enforce this rule on any newly appointed staff in the future but to have this enforced for all existing members,and who knows,there could be staff working there over 10 yrs! To ask the staff to take their summers hols in Oct/Nov is obscene.So they will have to fly to the southern hemisphere to get a tan. Its ok if their all on 100k/annum but i dont think that the work that the op does is that well paid to be fair.
Remember,they will see sense if the staff rejects this new rule.No golfer will enjoy putting on long and hairy greens. are you in a union?see what they have to say.
 
OP - Can you confirm what is in your current contract re. holidays? Is there any constructive that you can suggest to the boss to ensure that business doesn't suffer while permitting reasonably holidays, e.g. reallocation of roles?
 
It seems very unfair and definitely goes against the guidelines set out above regarding family responsibilities.

A fair compromise would be that staff are only allowed take one week's holiday within this time period as opposed to the two that many take. You should also be assured that if you need compassionate leave for whatever reason you will not be penalised in any way.
 
Surely with 6 full-time and extra part-time staff in those months, they can phase your holidays so that only 1 member of staff can take holidays at any one time - two weeks each. It is unreasonable to expect any employee not to take holidays during the 6 month period - most businesses have their "busy season" but can still accommodate reasonable, rostered holiday requirements.
 
you'd imagine with plenty of notice they should be able to accommodate holiday requests, i guess tho the industry is labour intensive for those months whereas in the off peak months the workload is far less.

to me it all boils down to the adage a happy worker is a good worker,
 
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