Petition · Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade

Stop businesses from making staff use annual leave at Christmas

Closed 58 signatures

What the petition asks

The government should ban companies from making staff use their annual leave to cover holiday periods when the business is closed. Or alternatively they should increase the legal minimum holiday allowance to cover Christmas.
Some companies that only provide the minimum holiday allowance of 20 days (plus bank holidays) will close at Christmas, leaving their staff as little as 15 days to use. We believe this shouldn’t be allowed. We think that there are people with religious views, or have no family and would rather work, or who simply don't like Christmas who have to sacrifice their annual leave. We believe that if companies chose to close for maintenance they wouldn't make their staff use leave, so why at Christmas?

Timeline

27 Jan 2025 Petition opened for signatures
27 Jul 2025 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 58
Status Closed
Department Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Opened 27 Jan 2025
Closed 27 Jul 2025

Follow this petition

Sign in to get an email when the government responds, a debate is scheduled or held, or the petition closes.

Source: the official petition page. Last checked 18 Aug 2026.