Can an employer make an employee take their annual leave?
In most cases an employer cannot direct an employee to take annual leave. However, if the employer has a period of shut down and requires employees to take time off during this time, and the employee has at least the amount of leave credited that is required, then they can direct an employee to take annual leave. If the employee does not have sufficient annual leave accrued to take during the shut down, there are three options: • The business could undertake only a partial shutdown to allow the employee to work; • Reach agreement with the employee to take unpaid leave during the shut down period; • Reach agreement with the employee that annual leave in advance would be granted. An employer may also direct an employee to take annual leave if there is excessive accrued leave and at the time of the direction: • The employee has annual leave credited to him or her of more than 1/13th of the number of “nominal hours worked in the pervious two year period (i.e. eight weeks leave for an emplo
