Annual leave : blocking school holidays weeks

[wdo1256]

Looking for any advice on this one.

Our office Annual leave for 2009 - 2010 has started and our manager has blocked part of the weeks in Feburary/ May/ and October. The same weeks that fall when the schools break up.

We are in blocks of twenty and every week 2 off us can take leave, apart from Christmas pressure which is two weeks for most officies, except ours where the three weeks before xmas have been blocked off.

Back to my main point, for the school holidays in cetain blocks he is only allowing 1 person off. Which means instead of allowing 10 people time off in the whole office during the school holidays only 8 are allowed. This is denying two people in the office a chance to spend their holidays with the whole family.

I had a chat over this issue as it is unfair to staff and was told that the reason for this is because people went sick during the school holiday week in October 08 and that left him in the lurch (he wasn't in as he can have all his holidays during the school holidays)

Does anyone know any Royal Mail Policy on this matter or can managers block any weeks that they seem fit. It doesn't look very family friendly to me.

Many thanks in advance

WDO1256

[islfor]

Every office should have a local agreement on A/L between RM & CWU Rep, it is then used until both sides agree it needs changing.
Under the Way Forward Agreement it had 3 different examples of how to implement A/L.
Use the Grieviance Procedure against the DOM if your not happy, it will then get CWU Rep involved & his Cluster manager.

[Captain Scarlet]

My manager is wanting me to do something along the same lines, only he wants to cut the number who will be off thru the whole leave period. Under the Pay/Mod Agreement are we not supposed to have more entitlement to leave?
Can someone post something on here from agreement so I can be sure about this.

[johnnyp]

This may be the bit you mean mate,its one of the Enablers
Efficient Summer staffing- each unit will utilise the opportunity offered by reduced traffic volumes to re-arrange responsibilities during the summer period. This will offer employees additional opportunities for leave during the same period.

[DGP1]

There are a couple of reasons why the DOM wants to reduce (or restrict) leave, 1) He just doesn't have the staff to cover (see very poor management/IR) 2) He's just doing it for spite because he can.

[harmony]

There are a couple of reasons why the DOM wants to reduce (or restrict) leave, 1) He just doesn't have the staff to cover (see very poor management/IR) 2) He's just doing it for spite because he can.

so much for their family friendly working then

[DGP1]

There are a couple of reasons why the DOM wants to reduce (or restrict) leave, 1) He just doesn't have the staff to cover (see very poor management/IR) 2) He's just doing it for spite because he can.

so much for their family friendly working then

There's nothing friendly about RM managers, they're just incompetent, spiteful people who have displayed a complete lack of any ability to run a business.

Bitter aren't I

[Carnoustie]

This may be the bit you mean mate,its one of the Enablers
Efficient Summer staffing- each unit will utilise the opportunity offered by reduced traffic volumes to re-arrange responsibilities during the summer period. This will offer employees additional opportunities for leave during the same period.

Nah, don't quote that. The manager in question has blocked part of the weeks in February/ May/ and October (when the schools break up) and he's gonna straight away say that as those aren't SUMMER months, your argument isn't valid

[wdo1256]

This may be the bit you mean mate,its one of the Enablers
Efficient Summer staffing- each unit will utilise the opportunity offered by reduced traffic volumes to re-arrange responsibilities during the summer period. This will offer employees additional opportunities for leave during the same period.

Nah, don't quote that. The manager in question has blocked part of the weeks in February/ May/ and October (when the schools break up) and he's gonna straight away say that as those aren't SUMMER months, your argument isn't valid

Thanks to all for the imput so far.

You are correct, the weeks he has reduced A/L to all staff are Feb/May/Oct. not the summer holidays.

I'm looking for anything that says that this is against RM rules. Otherwise what's stopping him reducing A/L on weeks to suit his plans in the future ?

WDO1256

[islfor]

No more summer & winter leave !!......Leave is the same all year and the only time you are not allowed leave is 3 weeks prior to xmas.

put a grievance in or get rep to chase it up the IR Framework.

[trythat]

We said we needed more holidays in the summer when they wanted lapsing bought in, I thought more slots would be added when the staff thought they needed them.
We've nearly done on 09/10 holidays here, they seem to get earlier and earlier each year. We have 3 different groups rural, town and P/T, and we start at 3 places each year, highest seniority, lowest seniority and start from the middle, so hopefully everyone can get what they want at least every 3 years. When picking starts only the Christmas pressure is blocked out, and then we start blocking on the holidays sheets as they get filled.

TBH it sounds as though you've got a shitty DOM running the office, as we know Bulling is alive and well in RM, despite the crap they keep spouting about knocking bulling on the head.

[wdo1256]

No more summer & winter leave !!......Leave is the same all year and the only time you are not allowed leave is 3 weeks prior to xmas.

put a grievance in or get rep to chase it up the IR Framework.

Thanks for this I will try the IR framework via my rep.

As a last resort I will go via the grievance route. I think that this might be a waste of time for stage one and two as I suspect that this is the Cluster manager idea.

[marky]

if he gets away with this one he will try another week somewhere else. i bet money on it. your rep cant let him get away with it.

[sue]

I've recently had my list of holiday entitlement given to me. On it I have 3 weeks pre-booked for me! Is this a usual thing to happen, because I only joined RM in the autumn of last year?
Do you think I've been slotted around all the other staff in the office?
Or could there be another reason, do you think?
Should I consult my rep with this one, or just accept it?
I've also noticed that none of the weeks booked are in school hols, which seems a little unfair to me, as most schools make it difficult to take the kids out of school during term time.
What are your thoughts on this one???

Thanks in advance...

[rockytony67]

I've recently had my list of holiday entitlement given to me. On it I have 3 weeks pre-booked for me! Is this a usual thing to happen, because I only joined RM in the autumn of last year?
Do you think I've been slotted around all the other staff in the office?
Or could there be another reason, do you think?
Should I consult my rep with this one, or just accept it?
I've also noticed that none of the weeks booked are in school hols, which seems a little unfair to me, as most schools make it difficult to take the kids out of school during term time.
What are your thoughts on this one???

Thanks in advance...

It all depends on if you were giving time to book your leave, and you didn't hand the sheet back in the required time, usually seven days