Can AI approve leave requests?

You arrange childcare, put your holiday request into the rota app and get an instant no. No explanation. Nobody to speak to. Your employer chose that system. It still owes you your rights.

Can the app decide at all?

There is no general ban on software deciding leave requests. A basic rota app might apply a rule about how many staff can be off together. An AI tool might score requests using your attendance history. Both must respect your employment rights and data protection law. Your employer cannot pass responsibility to the software supplier.

A supermarket can refuse particular holiday dates because it needs cover. It cannot keep refusing until you lose your statutory leave. Ask which dates you can take instead, especially as the leave year ends. See our guide to the Working Time Regulations.

The deadlines still apply, whoever clicks the button

Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave for a full leave year. For someone working five days a week, that is 28 days. Bank holidays can count towards it. Part-time entitlement is proportionate; irregular-hours accrual works differently, as explained below.

Check your contract and any collective or workforce agreement first. A relevant agreement can change or exclude the default notice rules. Otherwise, regulation 15 requires notice before the relevant date. Allow an extra day when counting, rather than submitting on that date.

A timely app notification can be counter-notice. Silence is not counter-notice under the default rule. A late refusal may be ineffective if you gave valid notice, but that is not a safe reason to walk out without checking your agreement and the facts. Get advice from your union or Acas before staying away. A dispute about authorised absence can put your job at risk even when you have a good legal argument.

When you have a right to human intervention

For decisions taken on or after 5 February 2026, UK GDPR Articles 22A to 22D replace the old Article 22 rules. Article 22C applies where the decision uses personal data, has a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and involves no meaningful human decision-making.

A person clicking “confirm” is not necessarily meaningful involvement. Ask whether the manager checked your circumstances, considered the reason for the request and could change the result. The substance matters more than the approval button.

When Article 22C applies, your employer must have safeguards that let you:

1. Get information about the decision. Ask what was decided and how the automated process was used.
2. Put your side. Explain the circumstances and correct inaccurate information.
3. Obtain human intervention. Ask for someone who can reconsider the result.
4. Contest the decision. Ask for it to be changed and explain why.

We cannot promise that every refused holiday request is a significant decision. The test is a legal effect or a similarly significant effect, not simply an unwelcome answer. A refusal affecting your statutory entitlement, pay or disciplinary record gives you a stronger reason to raise Article 22C. Explain that effect in your request. Even if the test is not met, you can ask your manager to reconsider or raise a grievance.

If the app uses health or other sensitive data

Article 22B restricts significant solely automated decisions based wholly or partly on special category data, including health, race and religion. One exception requires the decision to rely entirely on processing to which you gave explicit consent. Another requires contractual necessity or legal authorisation and the substantial-public-interest condition in Article 9(2)(g). A clause in your contract is not enough by itself.

If a warehouse tool uses disability-related sickness to block holiday, ask which data it used and what legal basis permits that use. Ask your employer to correct errors and provide human review. You can complain to the ICO about data protection, separately from any employment claim.

When the system keeps saying no to the same people

Discrimination does not become lawful because a computer made the decision. A blanket rule can be indirectly discriminatory under section 19 of the Equality Act 2010 if it disadvantages a protected group and you personally, unless the employer can justify it as a proportionate way to achieve a legitimate aim. A staffing need can be relevant. Saying “the app decided” does not justify the rule.

For example, a supermarket rule refusing every request on a particular religious festival might disadvantage workers of that religion. A rule requiring unrestricted availability might disadvantage women with childcare responsibilities. Caring responsibilities are not themselves a protected characteristic. Whether either rule is unlawful depends on the evidence and justification, not the festival or childcare request alone.

Direct discrimination is different. Section 13 concerns less favourable treatment because of a protected characteristic. Removing a field labelled “religion” or “sex” does not answer a discrimination complaint if other inputs produce unlawful treatment.

Pregnancy and disability need separate attention. Pregnancy-related treatment can engage specific pregnancy protections. Counting disability-related absence can raise discrimination and reasonable-adjustment issues. A disabled cleaner who needs the app’s attendance record corrected should not have to solve the employer’s software problem first. See reasonable adjustments.

Keep the rule, refusal reasons and examples of how it affects you. A subject access request can obtain your personal data, such as your leave history and scores. It does not give you an automatic right to colleagues’ records or the source code. Ask separately for anonymised information about the pattern of refusals; your union may help seek it. You do not need to reverse-engineer the tool before getting advice.

Other time off is not ordinary holiday

Do not let an app put every absence into the annual-leave queue. These Great Britain rights have different rules, and several are employee rights rather than rights for every worker.

Emergency time off for dependants

Employees can take a reasonable amount of unpaid time to deal with specified emergencies involving a dependant, such as a child falling ill or care arrangements unexpectedly breaking down. Tell your employer the reason and expected duration as soon as reasonably practicable. A planned appointment is not automatically an emergency, and a household repair by itself is not a dependant emergency. An app’s ordinary holiday refusal does not settle whether you qualify. See time off for a family emergency.

Carer’s leave

Since 6 April 2024, eligible employees have a day-one right to one week of unpaid carer’s leave in a 12-month period for a dependant with a long-term care need. Notice is required. An employer cannot simply refuse a qualifying request. It can postpone where the absence would unduly disrupt the business, with reasons and a replacement date within one month. An instant “no” is not that process.

Flexible working

Employees have a day-one right to request flexible working, not an automatic right to the arrangement they want. You can make two statutory requests in 12 months. The employer must consult before refusing and normally decide within two months, unless you agree an extension. An app’s rejection without consultation does not satisfy that duty. See flexible working requests.

Sickness and sick pay

Since 6 April 2026, the sick-pay rules described in our GB guide provide Statutory Sick Pay from the first qualifying day, without a lower earnings limit. The weekly amount is £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks if eligible. Sickness is not a holiday request. Follow the sickness-reporting procedure and challenge an incorrect score or withheld payment. See Statutory Sick Pay.

Zero-hours, agency and variable-hours staff

Your employment status determines your leave rights. A label in the app does not. Zero-hours work can still carry paid holiday entitlement, and people labelled self-employed may legally be workers.

SSP eligibility has its own rules; do not decide it from this comparison alone. Data protection applies to your personal data regardless of employment status. Equality Act coverage depends on its own employment definition, which can cover people contracted personally to do work.

Agency workers have statutory holiday rights from the start. After 12 qualifying weeks in the same role, the Agency Workers Regulations can give equal treatment in basic working conditions, including pay and annual leave, compared with direct recruits. Identify which organisation employs you and handles leave. See agency rights and zero-hours rights.

In GB, for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, qualifying irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue statutory holiday at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. Statutory rounding rules apply. An employer can choose rolled-up holiday pay for these workers, adding 12.07% of total pay as a separate payslip item. It can instead pay holiday when you take it. Rolled-up pay never removes your right to time off.

What to do when the computer says no

1. Keep the evidence. Save the request, refusal, timestamps, leave balance and rota. Keep your contract and relevant payslips. Note who, if anyone, reviewed the request.
2. Ask for a person to reconsider. Write: “Please review the refusal of my leave on [dates] and explain the rule applied. Was there meaningful human involvement? The decision affects me by [effect]. If Article 22C applies, I request information about the decision, human intervention and a way to contest it.” Correct any wrong attendance data.
3. Raise a grievance and involve your union. Ask for the dates to be reconsidered, an opportunity to take your entitlement and correction of any wrong absence mark or pay. For a notice dispute, give the dates. For suspected discrimination, identify the rule and disadvantage. See raising a grievance and employee data rights.
4. Protect the tribunal deadline in parallel. The government says the usual GB claim limit increased from three to six months on 1 October 2026. The starting point varies by claim. Do not assume an older incident gets the new limit, or that you have six months after conciliation. Contact Acas promptly to check the applicable deadline and begin early conciliation where required. Neither a grievance nor an ICO complaint stops that clock.
5. Use the right enforcement route. The ICO deals with data protection complaints; it does not award compensation or order your holiday to be approved. Acas early conciliation is the usual route before a GB tribunal claim. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026. Ask Acas about the current reporting route for a holiday-pay complaint; an enforcement report does not replace your own claim. For minimum-wage underpayment, ask about the official pay-and-work-rights complaint route.

A human-review request does not require you to find your own replacement or persuade a colleague to surrender their holiday. Staffing is the employer’s responsibility. Offer an alternative date if it suits you, not because you have to accept the app’s answer.

Ask your workplace union representative for help. USDAW represents retail and some distribution workers; UNISON covers many care and NHS support roles; GMB and Unite organise across logistics, food and hospitality; IWGB organises riders and outsourced workers. If you are not a member, ask what support is available before assuming legal cover for an existing dispute. Acas, Citizens Advice and law centres are other advice routes.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The GB leave, equality and employment rules above cover Scotland as well as England and Wales. The government timetable gives 9 November 2026, rather than 1 October, for the extension of Scottish tribunal breach-of-employment-contract claim limits. That exception is about contract claims, not every claim brought in Scotland.

Northern Ireland has separate employment and discrimination legislation. Its Working Time Regulations provide the same basic 5.6-week holiday entitlement and similar default notice rules. UK GDPR automated-decision safeguards apply UK-wide. Do not use the GB Equality Act sections or Acas tribunal route as though they were Northern Ireland law.

For employment disputes in Northern Ireland, contact the Labour Relations Agency and check the relevant industrial or fair employment tribunal deadline. Do not assume GB’s new six-month limit applies. On sick pay, nidirect says eligible workers receive SSP from the first day off sick. Do not assume NI still has waiting days. See our guide to Northern Ireland differences.

What is in force and what is still promised

This guide states the position as at 1 October 2026. The government’s September 2026 timetable separates measures already introduced from future reforms. Scheduled dates can change.

1. 5 Feb 2026Automated-decision safeguards in force

   Articles 22A to 22D apply to decisions from this date, replacing old Article 22.

2. 6 Apr 2026GB sick-pay and family-leave changes in force

   SSP waiting days and the lower earnings limit removed. Eligible employees gain day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave rights; statutory pay has separate eligibility rules.

3. 7 Apr 2026Fair Work Agency established

   The agency’s launch does not make a grievance or tribunal claim unnecessary.

4. 1 Oct 2026Usual GB tribunal limit extended

   The timetable records an increase from three to six months. Check the claim-specific deadline and transitional rules. Scottish contract claims follow on 9 November 2026.

5. 1 Jan 2027Shorter unfair-dismissal qualification scheduled

   The ordinary qualifying period is due to fall from two years to six months for dismissals from this date. This is not yet in force. Existing automatic-unfair-dismissal exceptions remain separate.

Questions people ask

Can AI approve my holiday without a manager checking?

There is no blanket ban. The employer must respect your holiday rights and data protection law. Article 22C safeguards apply if the decision uses personal data, is solely automated and has a legal or similarly significant effect. The safeguard is not limited to refusals.

The app refuses every date. Can I lose my holiday?

Your employer can refuse particular dates, but it must let you take your statutory entitlement. Write down each refusal and ask when you can take it. Get advice before the leave year ends; repeated refusals, carry-over and holiday-pay claims need attention to the facts.

How much holiday notice must I give?

Check your agreement first. Under the default regulation 15 rule, give notice before the date twice the number of requested leave days ahead of the first day. For two days starting 15 November, submit by 10 November. Allowing an extra day avoids giving notice on the relevant date itself.

Can the app use my sickness record?

Processing health data requires a lawful basis and a special category condition. Significant solely automated decisions using it face the extra Article 22B restrictions. Disability-related absence may also raise discrimination or reasonable-adjustment issues. Ask what data was used and challenge errors.

Does rolled-up holiday pay mean I cannot take time off?

No. It changes when eligible irregular-hours and part-year workers receive holiday pay, not their right to leave. If your employer uses this method, the additional payment must be shown separately. An ordinary payslip without that item might instead mean the employer pays when you take holiday.

Should I wait for HR or the ICO before contacting Acas?

No. Ask Acas about early conciliation and your employment claim deadline while pursuing the internal complaint. A grievance and an ICO complaint do not stop the tribunal clock. In Northern Ireland, use the Labour Relations Agency instead.

Sources

1. Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 80: Articles 22A to 22D, legislation.gov.uk
2. Data (Use and Access) Act commencement regulations, SI 2026/82, legislation.gov.uk
3. Working Time Regulations 1998: annual leave and holiday pay, legislation.gov.uk
4. Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 15: notice before the relevant date, legislation.gov.uk
5. Holiday pay and entitlement reforms: definitions, rounding and rolled-up pay, GOV.UK
6. Equality Act 2010, section 13: direct discrimination, legislation.gov.uk
7. Equality Act 2010, section 19: indirect discrimination, legislation.gov.uk
8. Flexible working, GOV.UK
9. Carer’s Leave Act 2023, legislation.gov.uk
10. Employment Rights Act 1996: dependants, Working Time detriment and statutory-rights dismissal, legislation.gov.uk
11. Statutory Sick Pay, GOV.UK
12. Statutory Sick Pay changes 2026, Acas
13. National Minimum Wage and Living Wage rates, GOV.UK
14. Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act timetable, updated 25 September 2026, GOV.UK
15. Employment Rights Act 2025, Acas
16. Automated decision-making and profiling, ICO
17. Agency Workers Regulations 2010, legislation.gov.uk
18. Working Time Regulations, Northern Ireland, 2016, legislation.gov.uk
19. Sick pay rights: SSP from the first day off sick, nidirect
20. Statutory Sick Pay in Northern Ireland, nidirect
21. Making employment rights work: paid holiday non-compliance estimates, TUC
22. Technology managing people: the worker experience, 2020, TUC and Institute for Employment Studies