NSW Company Directing All Staff to Plan Annual Leave?

[John Doherty]

As title says. Business (Large enterprise) is directing all staff to have all their annual leave planned in for the year in April. As in, not take it by April, but submit leave requests for the year.

I'm struggling to find any material around whether or not this is actually okay to do, and I'd like to understand.

 

[Rod]

It is a grey area. Annual leave is often by mutual agreement and must not be unreasonably withheld.

Having a blanket policy may be unreasonable in a white collar job. Not so unreasonable in a factory environment where a shutdown is done every 12 months for maintenance.

 

[Blessing]

the process of requesting annual leave is usually provided for contracts, agreements or company policy. As Rod mentioned, legally companies shouldn't unreasonable refuse leave, otherwise the rest is usually as per the contract or company policy.