Company Docking Leave Days

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Seemonster84

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Apologies if this has been answered in some form, can anybody offer some advice?

My Company has implemented a policy where any leave days more than 10 at the end of Feb every year are forfeit. Is this legal?
 
Probably, we are also compelled to take any leave accrued up the end of the previous financial year before end of September, or you lose it.
 
We get x days of leave a year, available in it's entirety on Jan 01. No rollover. My employer does have some seemingly dodge habits, but this one at least, as far as I know is legit.

If it's something you want to dispute, perhaps chase the means in which it was implemented, rather than the policy itself.
 
I cannot comment on legality - however it is becoming more common. Companies dont want people leaving and having to pay out $$$ for leave days accrued
 
10 seems a little low but this is a common practice, we are allowed to accumulate leave up until a maximum of 1.5 times our annual allocation after which excess is forfeited.
 
We are placed on forced leave, if I'm not mistaken, if leave exceeds a certain amount come end Feb. It's not to be assholes, company wants us to take time off to relax and unwind.
 
WAslayer said:
www.labourguide.co.za/conditions-of-employment/102-annual-leave

Employers may not introduce a use it or lose it policy.. It would be illegal and unenforceable even f you have signed in agreement to it..
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I have heard otherwise with there even being a court case where the judge denied an ex employee being paid out all of their accumulated leave with their reasoning being along the lines of leave is there to ensure employee's get a break from work and not be accrued/accumulated for financial gain at a later stage. My employer used this case as the foundation for their 1.5 x annual leave allocation to set a maximum leave limit.
 
I think this use it or lose it policy needs to be challenged in court properly by someone who has the money and time to do it...

I personally have no issue with a leave accumulation cap, but then the policy needs to be around forced leave for the employee to reduce their leave balance.

I would say something like every employee MUST use 10 days of their leave every year, and can accumulate up to 1.5x their annual leave balance, at which point it needs to all be used at once (or something along those lines)
 
ToxicBunny said:
I think this use it or lose it policy needs to be challenged in court properly by someone who has the money and time to do it...

I personally have no issue with a leave accumulation cap, but then the policy needs to be around forced leave for the employee to reduce their leave balance.

I would say something like every employee MUST use 10 days of their leave every year, and can accumulate up to 1.5x their annual leave balance, at which point it needs to all be used at once (or something along those lines)
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I'll have to do some digging to find it but there is a case of an ex employee who took he ex employer to court who refused to pay out all of his accrued/accumulated leave. He lost and the judge allowed only 1.5x his annual allocation to be paid out which was the basis for my employer's current maximum leave policy.
 
Neuk_ said:
I'll have to do some digging to find it but there is a case of an ex employee who took he ex employer to court who refused to pay out all of his accrued/accumulated leave. He lost and the judge allowed only 1.5x his annual allocation to be paid out which was the basis for my employer's current maximum leave policy.
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Yeah I can see why the judge ruled that way (even though I generally disagree with it), but it would be in that light where I would like to see a use it, or be forced to use it policy, rather than a use it or lose it policy.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yeah I can see why the judge ruled that way (even though I generally disagree with it), but it would be in that light where I would like to see a use it, or be forced to use it policy, rather than a use it or lose it policy.
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Yeah, this is what one of our biggest unions had issues with, that the employer couldn't implement a policy like this but then place unreasonable limits on when an employee could take their leave. We don't have a forced to use it in our leave policy as far as I know though but our HR director did state that if an employee wanted to take leave but wasn't able to for whatever reason, they would look at allowing them to take it even if it had expired. Whether this happens though, I have no idea, I keep an eye on my leave and luckily have a fairly healthy leave allocation.
 
i dont know if it is legal but we are also been frowned upon if we have more than 10 at any given time, but so far no one has lost their leave. Yet
 
Neuk_ said:
I have heard otherwise with there even being a court case where the judge denied an ex employee being paid out all of their accumulated leave with their reasoning being along the lines of leave is there to ensure employee's get a break from work and not be accrued/accumulated for financial gain at a later stage. My employer used this case as the foundation for their 1.5 x annual leave allocation to set a maximum leave limit.
Click to expand...
I can't speak around the context of paying out accumulated leave and agree that, it's fair to not force companies to have to pay out accumulated leave..

However, the law makes it illegal, to avoid situations where an employee has leave requests denied time and time again due to business needs.. These employees, who are not resigning, may then, unfairly, have their leave forfeited..

Definitely room for improving this particular case in the labour act..
 
WAslayer said:
I can't speak around the context of paying out accumulated leave and agree that, it's fair to not force companies to have to pay out accumulated leave..

However, the law makes it illegal, to avoid situations where an employee has leave requests denied time and time again due to business needs.. These employees, who are not resigning, may then, unfairly, have their leave forfeited..

Definitely room for improving this particular case in the labour act..
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Aah, I think I misread your original post but am with you now, that is exactly what one of unions took issue with.
 
Our company informed all of us we will only be allowed 3 weeks of our annual leave last year and must take the rest this year, so yea, still have 4 days of that left as well as this years leave, should I take 5 weeks off this Dec/Jan? :ROFL:
 
Go back to the company leave policy. It should state that if leave is not taken or managed properly by the employee then it will be forfeited. As far as I am aware this should be defined in the company policy.
 
AstroTurf said:
Our company informed all of us we will only be allowed 3 weeks of our annual leave last year and must take the rest this year, so yea, still have 4 days of that left as well as this years leave, should I take 5 weeks off this Dec/Jan? :ROFL:
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Legally, you can go up to 4 weeks.. law allows for 21 consecutive days a year..
 
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