As the end of the calendar year drawers closer, many businesses are also approaching the end of the holiday year. If you’ve been keeping a close eye on annual leave throughout the year, you should have some idea of how much time off your employees have taken, and importantly now, how much they still have left.
But what happens if someone hasn’t used all of their holiday allowance? Can you simply say “use it or lose it”?
In many cases, the answer is yes you can, provided that you have a clear policy that clearly states that unused leave cannot be carried over (except in exceptional circumstances of course) and that you’ve given employees plenty of opportunity to take their time off.
However, you should also bear in mind that case law confirmed that under the EU Working Time Directive, “unused leave should not automatically expire unless the employer has “diligently” informed the employee of the risk of losing it”. This does put the onus back on the employer to prove they gave accurate and timely reminders to their employees.
The best way to avoid an end of year rush (and a lot of frustration) is to manage annual leave proactively.
If you haven’t done so yet carry out a review of used leave and understand the reason why it’s untaken as it may be valid reason to allow carry over into 2026.
Encourage any holiday is taken by the end of the year (send a few of emails between now and year end so that you have an audit trail to show employees were given every opportunity to take their leave and it won’t come as shock to them in January that it hasn’t been rolled over).
Confirm in writing how much (if any) holiday can be carried over into 2026 and any rules for its usage.
After all, the last thing you want is half your team requesting three weeks off in December because they haven’t taken a break since the spring.
Finally, if you’re worried about the amount of leave someone has left (and the business can accommodate it) you can decide to put an employee on holiday, as long as you give them twice the amount of notice of the holiday itself. This might help if you and your employees if you have someone who is reluctant to take time off.
With a little planning and the right tools, the end of the holiday year admin doesn’t have to be stressful for you or your team.
