Holiday rights

[Desi's_lost]

I'm not 100% sure this is the right second so no hard feelings if it needs to be moved/closed anndd I know technically everyone that works at the place I work has no rights because they refuse to hire us legally (almost very employee is under the table) but it was Halloween the other night and this situation came up.

I work in a pizza place. There are two pizza makers, the owner, and the head/boss chef who can make pizza. One of the pizza guys has a daughter who lives about 2hrs away and he hasn't got to go trick or treating with her for a few years so he took the day off (a day he normally has off) but didn't specifically ask. The owners freeeaaakkked out, how dare he do that. He knows he has to work holidays...no one gets holidays off. Okay. I get it. He's a pizza guy who has no education in this country at least and who speaks poor English but does that really mean he, or any of us other employees, have no right to see our family? The way I see it is god forbid the owner had to work for a few hours (for once!). There are four people capable of working, why can't they take turns?

I'm just curious if I'm way off base with the general consencous.

edit: I mean, they were literally talking about firing him because he took his seven year old daughter out for the first time in about three years, to go trick or treating. We managed just fine at the store. Sure it was hard, but according to them, its worse in the summer..and the owner only ever wants to work when we're slammed anyway. I was just so mad at how they acted.

 

[Kitteh_Kat]

I've worked at several different types of settings (retail, food service, corporate, law enforcement, etc), and at every single company I've worked for I have always had to schedule a day off, including holidays that I knew I had to work on unless excused. Just calling out unless I was too sick to work was a no-no. I feel for the man, and not getting holidays off suck, but if he knew he had to work holidays when he took the job then I can understand the manager's anger at him for just not showing up when expected, especially if the man didn't give notice. He runs a business, and not having that extra person there can mess up the flow and production.

Food service in general is a tough line of work; I think the only holiday I ever got when working in it was Christmas Day itself because the place was closed. Otherwise I worked every single holiday. Definitely don't miss it!

 

[Desi's_lost]

Tbh, I dont think it would have mattered if he tried to schedule it off, i'm pretty sure they would have told him too bad. Thats why I think he did it that way.

 

[Pearls18]

I know workers' rights in the US are pretty shocking as it is compared to us in the UK, but even in the UK we have to give notice for taking days off and they have to be approved by our line managers whatever the reason. If I took a day off without prior warning (especially during a busy time of year) I would be taken through a disciplinary procedure, it will depend on the policy as to what is fair and how far it would be taken. But tbh as good as his reason he was unprofessional and I doubt he would have a leg to stand on if they sacked him (they are within their rights to say no to giving him the time off on busy day that's not a good enough reason to just take the day off anyway).