Hi

I work full time 52 weeks a year (i.e. not term time only) in a
secondary school and over the Christmas holiday break the school will
be closed between Christmas day until the 2nd of January.

We've been told by senior management that we will 'have to' take the
generally accepted working days in bewteen these two dates - Thursday
27th, Friday 28th and Monday 31st - off as holdiays form our anual
holiday entitlement.

The question I've got is can they close the school and make it
physically impossible for us to work and basically say that we have to
take these days as holidays?

Quite a few of us have come from industry before working in schools
and are used to working over the Christmas period but we are more
concerned that as well as only being allowed to take our annual
entitlement holidays during the school holidays (which is pretty
restrictive, but we accepted that when we applied for the posts in the
education sector) we are now being told what days we have to take as
holidays.

Any advice, or information would be welcomed!

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:21:21 -0800 (PST), cuelad@googlemail.com wrote:

> The question I've got is can they close the school and make it
> physically impossible for us to work and basically say that we have to
> take these days as holidays?

Yes.  An employee has a statutory right to take paid holidays but no
statutory right that allows him to choose which days you take as those
holidays.  The employer has total control, subject only to any agreements
that exist between them and the employee.

> Quite a few of us have come from industry before working in schools
> and are used to working over the Christmas period but we are more
> concerned that as well as only being allowed to take our annual
> entitlement holidays during the school holidays (which is pretty
> restrictive, but we accepted that when we applied for the posts in the
> education sector) we are now being told what days we have to take as
> holidays.
>
> Any advice, or information would be welcomed!

Your realistic range of options may be to accept their demands, negotiate
(maybe with union help?) something better or to change jobs.

Tony

cuelad@googlemail.com wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I work full time 52 weeks a year (i.e. not term time only) in a
> secondary school and over the Christmas holiday break the school will
> be closed between Christmas day until the 2nd of January.
> 
> We've been told by senior management that we will 'have to' take the
> generally accepted working days in bewteen these two dates - Thursday
> 27th, Friday 28th and Monday 31st - off as holdiays form our anual
> holiday entitlement.
> 
> The question I've got is can they close the school and make it
> physically impossible for us to work and basically say that we have to
> take these days as holidays?
> 
> Quite a few of us have come from industry before working in schools
> and are used to working over the Christmas period but we are more
> concerned that as well as only being allowed to take our annual
> entitlement holidays during the school holidays (which is pretty
> restrictive, but we accepted that when we applied for the posts in the
> education sector) we are now being told what days we have to take as
> holidays.
> 
> Any advice, or information would be welcomed!

What does your employment contract say , if it states that your holiday
arrangements are flexible then they need your agreement to any change
in your contract terms if it does not specify any dates then whatever
has become standard practice will be the norm , again a negotiated
position

if your working in school then there is likely to e either a locally or
nationally agreed policy speak to your union rep

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