Reduced annual leave due to special leave

[wowiezowie]

I took special leave (unpaid) recently to protect vunerable people in my household during the last lockdown. My manager told me this week that because of this my annual leave will be less than normal. Can anyone confirm that this is correct?

[mozilla]

Yes its correct unless there's any Covid related rules i don't know about . If you took a year off unpaid you wouldn't expect 6 weeks paid holiday to accrue so whatever length of time you took off will impact on your annual leave entitlement.

[Woody Guthrie]

It kind of sits on the edge of whether you could fight it or not.

The business policy is that you don't normally accrue annual leave during periods of unpaid leave but there are exceptions where you have a statutory right to claim unpaid leave like maternity, paternity and adoptive leave.

As this is all new whether voluntary shielding would be covered hasn't really been tested so nobody is sure but since it is the case with furlough which is another form of unpaid leave I actually think it would stand and so do a lot of employment lawyers.

I would suggest contacting HR, you might find they have a different take on it than your manager. Nothing to lose.