Can You Force Employees to Take Annual Leave?

Every year, somewhere around October, an office manager works out that eleven people still have most of their holiday left and the leave year ends in December. Every year, someone asks the same question: can you force employees to take annual leave?

The answer is yes — clearly and specifically yes, under a regulation that has been in force since 1998. What catches employers out is not whether they can, but the notice they have to give, and the handful of situations where the power runs out. This guide covers both. For the wider rules on entitlement, start with our UK annual leave entitlement guide.

The Rule: Regulation 15

Regulation 15 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 gives employers two powers:

• Require leave to be taken on particular days ("you will be off between Christmas and New Year")
• Require leave not to be taken on particular days ("nobody is off during the September audit")

Both are exercised by giving notice, and the two have different notice formulas.

Notice runs in calendar days, not working days, and it must be given before the notice period begins — you cannot backdate it.

The Contract Can Override the Notice

Regulation 15 applies except where a relevant agreement provides otherwise. A "relevant agreement" includes the employment contract, a workforce agreement, or a collective agreement. So if the contract says "the business closes for the week between Christmas and New Year and employees must reserve five days of their annual leave for this", that clause governs, and you do not need to serve fresh notice every year.

This is the single most useful thing an employer can do about shutdowns: write it into the contract once, rather than remembering to send a notice email every autumn.

The notice rule is a default, not a ceiling. A well-drafted contract clause about shutdown weeks removes the annual scramble entirely — and removes the argument.

The Four Situations Where This Comes Up

1. Christmas and Summer Shutdowns

The classic case. A business closes for a fixed period and requires everyone to use annual leave to cover it. Perfectly lawful with correct notice or a contract clause.

One thing to check: if the shutdown period contains bank holidays, be clear about whether those come out of the 5.6 weeks or sit on top of it. Employers regularly double-count here and end up giving less than the statutory minimum.

2. Use-It-Or-Lose-It at Year End

Where staff have hoarded leave, you can direct them to take it. But do the arithmetic before you send the notice: to require someone to take their last ten days, you need twenty days' notice, so a mid-December realisation is already too late for a 31 December year end.

The better fix is structural. Warn at the two-thirds point of the leave year, not the end. And understand your own carryover rules — if the balance can roll over, forcing it to be taken may not be necessary at all.

3. Notice Periods

When someone resigns with a large accrued balance, requiring them to take it during their notice period is lawful and common. Use the same twice-the-length notice formula. It avoids a large payment in lieu and means the leave is actually taken.

If the leave cannot be taken before the employment ends, it must be paid out — see our guide to holiday pay when an employee leaves.

4. Quiet Periods and Downturns

Lawful, with notice. Be careful about applying it selectively: requiring only some staff to take leave invites a discrimination or unfair treatment argument unless you can point to a genuine, consistent business reason for the difference.

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Where the Power Runs Out

Sickness Absence

An employee on long-term sick leave may choose to take annual leave — and often wants to, because holiday pay is higher than sick pay. Requiring them to do so is a different matter and is legally contested, on the basis that leave taken while unfit for work does not serve the rest-and-recuperation purpose the entitlement exists for. Our guide to holiday entitlement during sick leave goes into the interaction in detail. Take advice before compelling it.

Family Leave

You cannot require annual leave to be taken during maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave. The two run in parallel: holiday continues to accrue during family leave and is taken before or after it.

Notice That Is Too Short

If the notice does not meet the formula and there is no contractual clause, the requirement is not effective. An employee who works the days anyway has not used leave, and you have not reduced the balance.

Discriminatory Application

A shutdown that lands on a religious festival, applied without thought, or a "quiet period" requirement that only ever falls on part-time staff, will attract a discrimination claim. The power is real; how you exercise it still has to be fair.

How to Do It Properly

1. Check the contract first. If there is a shutdown clause, follow it. If there is not, consider adding one at the next contract review.
2. Count the notice in calendar days and double the leave length.
3. Put it in writing — email is fine — stating the exact dates and how many days of entitlement they use.
4. Check everyone has the balance. A new starter part way through the year may not have accrued enough to cover a full shutdown week; decide in advance whether they take it unpaid or you advance the days.
5. Record it against the leave year so the balances are right and the audit trail exists.
6. Give more notice than the minimum. The legal minimum is a floor for disputes, not a target for good management.

What If They Refuse to Take It?

Occasionally someone turns up anyway. A properly served requirement to take leave is a lawful management instruction, and attending work in defiance of it is not a way to preserve the days — the leave has been taken and the balance is reduced whether or not they came in.

That said, if they did work, you must pay them for the work done. You cannot have both the leave deducted and the hours unpaid. In practice this only becomes a problem where the instruction was vague, which is why the written notice matters: it should name the exact dates, state how many days of entitlement they consume, and say that the workplace is closed or that attendance is not required.

Where someone repeatedly ignores a valid instruction, it becomes a conduct issue to be handled under your disciplinary procedure — not something to resolve by adjusting their holiday record after the fact.

Key Takeaways

• Yes — regulation 15 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 allows it
• Notice to require leave is twice the length of the leave; notice to refuse it is equal to the length
• A contract or workforce agreement can override the default notice — the cleanest fix for annual shutdowns
• Requiring leave during sickness is legally risky; during family leave it is not permitted
• Apply it consistently, or invite a discrimination claim
• Check individual balances before setting shutdown dates, especially for mid-year starters

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 15 — legislation.gov.uk
• Checking holiday entitlement — Acas