Asked for a few days of study leave to prepare for my UK employer's internal certification, only to get a response in the range of 'as professionals we manage our time and you should stay at work longer or study in the weekend'.
A few issues with the above apart from the obvious demand for free work:
I) my employer has connected some agreed bonuses with the outcome of this examination, potential penalty is measured in the thousands.
II) my employer mentions study leave in the benefits package when advertising for my role, they word this as 'study leave as long as it's relevant to your role'.
III) note this examination was only recently imposed, over the years my employer has been happily collecting the benefits of my work, the examination is not something materially needed to perform my role.
Do I have any recourse over this difficult situation? I find it very unreasonable to demand an employee digests material of circa 900 ppt slides well enough to score 80% pass in a 3 hour interview while also being expected to fully perform their normal workload. Plus being told to study in the evenings/ weekends, especially when study leave is being advertised in job postings.
Do I have any way to protect myself over this, would it be worth it to take this up all the way to an employment tribunal?