A client recently asked us, can an employer deny an employee’s annual leave request?
Employees have certain rights and entitlements in their course of employment. Some of these include remuneration, a safe work environment and leave entitlements.
Prior to annual leave being taken, an employer needs to first approve an employee’s request for leave.
Why would leave be denied?
The most obvious reason for refusing a request is that an employee provides unreasonably short notice – for example, a few days’ notice for a period of several weeks’ leave.
What constitutes an unreasonable refusal depends on a number of things. Relevant factors may include:
The period over which the employee wants to take leave;
The operational requirements of the business during the leave period;
Whether the leave would cause a detriment to the business; and
Whether the employee gave reasonable notice.
So in short, yes – an employer can deny an employee’s annual leave request if there is a ‘genuine, sound, business reason’.
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