Does anyone know whether employers have to honour holidays if you have booked them before you start working with them or is this something that they can chose not to do.

Any advice would be much appreciated. :help:

Originally posted by honeybee
Does anyone know whether employers have to honour holidays if you have booked them before you start working with them or is this something that they can chose not to do.

Any advice would be much appreciated. :help:

I'm not 100% sure if they 'have' to honour holidays... but i think its a little unusual for a company not to do so... sometimes this question is added within an interview so the employer knows where they stand and when a start date can be agreed...

I find it a little strange if your holiday hasnt been honoured... especially as the holiday was booked before they employed you :?

Sorry i cant help you further... would be interesting to know...

Don't know myself but one of my best mates is a trainee solicitor who specalises in housing and employment law. I should see her over the weekend so I'll ask her.

Hi I work in recruitment and sorry no, the employer does not have to honour your holidays.

I once had a client (now ex client) company who withdrew the offer of employment made to someone when they found out they had a 3 week trip to Canada booked later in the year....again there was no comeback for the employee.

Yup...there is no reason for them to honour it.

A lot of companies will honour it, but only if you raise the issue at the interview. At the end of the day, if they are not aware of it, they may have current employees booked for holidays at the same time. I know from experience that we have not hired people before now becasue they had holidays booked for the time period we needed them for (Harry Potter opening week last year). We have also had people who didn't tell us they had a holiday over Christmas, when we were hiring them for the Christmas period! It is your responsibility to inform potential employers of an absence days upcoming BEFORE you are hired.

Thank you everyone for your responses will just have to wait and see.

Have to echo what has already been said, there’s no obligation, however I have worked in recruitment for 4 years (including over 2 years with an agency) and have found that most employers are quite accommodating on this issue. Any good employer will be prepared for newly appointed staff having holidays booked prior to starting with the company. Be up front with the potential employer and tell them at interview or initial offer stage that you have a holiday booked. Most employers will honour it if they want YOU for the job rather than just anyone. Personally if I was offered a job by a company who refused to honour my already booked holiday or who withdrew the job offer as a result then I would question whether I would really want to work for such a company!

I would agree, probably don't have to but if it is mentioned at the interview stage they are unlikely to refuse.