Labour Research (July 2017)

Law Queries

Holiday requests

Q. Can an employer turn down a holiday request?

A. The first place to look is the contract of employment and any arrangements agreed through collective bargaining. There may be provisions on holiday requests in these agreements.

It is clear from case law that holiday request conditions shouldn’t be unreasonable or arbitrary and should not make it very difficult for an employee to take their leave.


In the absence of agreement, the statutory provisions of the Working Time Regulations apply. Under this, workers are required to give notice which is at least twice the length of the requested holiday period. 


An employer can require the worker to defer their holiday (although not beyond the holiday year), but notice of this must be at least as long as the period of holiday requested. In addition, employers can specify particular times when leave should be taken, for example, at times when the workplace is closed. 





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