Many employees have felt forced or pressured by their bosses to take annual leave at certain times and wondered whether or not this breaches their employment rights. In most workplaces, employees must give notice that they wish to take time off. This notice period should be around twice the length of time that the employee wishes to take as annual leave, but some employers are more flexible about this. Your employer can also refuse a request if the needs of the business demand it: for example, if a lot of other staff members are on holiday at that time and the company would be under-staffed if your request was granted. They must give notice of refusal however and treat all employees equally when granting or refusing holiday requests. Some people even come to us with a complaint that their employer has forced them to take annual leave at a particular time. For example, when the office is closed for Christmas. There are two important points to remember with this kind of situation: The employer must give notice of at least twice the length of time of the requested annual leave dates, just like employees requesting holidays themselves Most organisations will outline the specific dates of mandatory holiday periods in their employment contracts, explaining clearly to employees if they'll need to take some or all of their holidays during quiet periods or during company downtime Another issue to note is that your employer can't force you to use all of your annual leave allocation if you don't want to, but they can pay you in lieu of holidays not taken. However, they can encourage employees to take their mandatory holiday entitlements, especially when the holiday year is nearing an end and a worker still has lots of leave left to use. If you believe that your employer has treated you unfairly when it comes to covering for colleagues who are on holiday, or in restricting the use of your own holiday allowance, our expert employment law solicitors are here to help. Call us now on 0330 041 5869 or contact us online and we'll call you back.