5.1 Your annual holiday entitlement is set out in your contract of employment. A week for the purposes of holiday calculation is your normal working week. In December you are only entitled to take one day of holiday (in addition to the 3 days you must take between Christmas and New Year), unless specifically requested and authorised in writing by the Managing Director, Saffia Bullock, who is contactable directly or through Head Office. No staff can take Christmas Eve as a holiday, unless they particularly need to travel early on Christmas Eve, due to train or plane times, in which case they must discuss this with the Managing Director and receive authorisation from her in writing.
5.2 Depending on your leave entitlement*, you may be entitled to carry forward a maximum of 3 days holiday from one holiday year to the next. If you work part time, this entitlement will be pro-rated. No payments will be made in lieu of holiday not taken except in respect of your last year of employment as set out below. It is your responsibility to ensure that you use your holiday entitlement during the year or sell days in accordance with Clause 5.11.
5.3 Holidays must be arranged at the mutual convenience of both you and the Company. You must give the Company reasonable notice of your intention to take your holiday. All applications for holiday must be made using your WhosOff account. You are only allowed to take holidays if the Company has approved them in advance and you have received notification of this approval; flights, travel or accommodation should therefore not be booked before holiday has been approved on WhosOff. Cancellation of approved holiday will only be made in exceptional circumstances and must be authorised in writing by the Managing Director.
5.4 You are not allowed to take more than 10 consecutive working days holiday unless you have obtained the express prior written permission of the Managing Director to do so.
5.5 The Company may object to you taking holiday on dates requested by you and/or on bank/public holidays if it is inconvenient to it. Holiday requests will be granted on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No two senior staff and no more than one staff member per age group room may be on holiday at any time except with the prior written approval of the Managing Director. The Manager and Deputy will not be authorised to take holiday at the same time, apart from exceptional circumstances with prior written agreement from the Managing Director.
5.6 Only your nursery manager or a senior manager or director can authorise holiday through the WhosOff system.
5.7 If you start or leave your employment during the holiday year you shall be entitled to pro rata annual entitlement for each week of service in that holiday year.
5.8 Upon termination of your employment you will be entitled to pay in lieu of any holiday accrued in your last holiday year but not taken. If you have taken holidays in excess of entitlement the Company shall be entitled to deduct the excess pay from your final salary payment.
5.9 The Company may require you to take (or not to take) any outstanding accrued holiday entitlement during your notice period.
BUYING AND SELLING HOLIDAY
5.10 Staff with 2 years full service have a holiday entitlement of at least 31 days inclusive of bank holidays and may request to buy and sell holiday in order to reduce or enlarge their annual leave allocation. The following rules and procedures shall apply to any buying or selling of holiday:
- Eligible staff may request to ‘sell’ back to the company up to 5 days leave per leave year, as long as they do not fall below their statutory minimum for leave in that leave year by doing so.
- Eligible staff may request to ‘buy’ from the company up to 5 days leave per leave year.
- The cost of selling a leave day shall be the employee’s normal hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours in their leave day (the employee’s working hours) and shall be remitted to the employee with their salary.
- The cost of buying a leave day shall be 1.10 multiplied by the employee’s normal rate multiplied by the number of hours in their leave day (the employee’s working hours) and shall be deducted from the monthly salary in the month that the leave is bought and authorised.
- A correctly completed request form (folder 1.1) to buy or sell leave shall be submitted to the Managing Director no later than the 15th of each month. Forms received by that deadline will be processed in that month’s salary. Forms received after this date, or those incorrectly completed, will be moved to the following month’s payroll and may impact on the decision of the company to accept the request. Your leave balance can be found using your WhosOff login or by contacting the Company Administrator.
- The Company reserves the right to accept or refuse any request for buying or selling of leave.
5.11 Should you fall ill during a period of annual leave you may elect to suspend your annual leave for use at a later date and commence sick leave. Please note that documentary evidence (self certification or Fit note) will be required on your return to work and that sick leave is not payable until the third day of sickness when Statutory sick pay (SSP) becomes payable
5.12 Employees may take discounted breaks at Maypole Cottages, Padstow, Leander House, The Gambia and The Corner Cottage, France. Staff discounts are available on application to Sue Farr.
*Where employees are in receipt of the statutory minimum annual leave entitlement, no carry over into the next leave year should be allowed (unless they’ve been prevented from taking it by some other form of statutory leave) as this would be in breach of the Working Time Regulations. Where employees have accrued additional leave after 2 years of service, carry over of 3 days will be allowed and won’t breach the WTR.