Introduction

The additional annual leave scheme is a voluntary option that enables an employee to purchase additional annual leave to allow them to work more flexibly and maintain a healthy work life balance.  It has the potential to assist in reducing the workforce budget whilst providing some additional flexibility for our employees.

Employees will commit to the scheme for a period of one year, from 01 January 2024 to 31 December  2024. The University is giving a commitment that if the employee is dismissed on the grounds of redundancy during this period, redundancy pay will be protected.

Eligibility

• The scheme enables an employee, with the agreement of the University, purchase additional annual leave entitlement by a maximum of 219 hours in any single annual leave year.
• Entitlement to additional annual leave is not a right but will be considered by the University in light of service needs and cost benefit to the University. The relevant Director or nominated representative must agree that the employee can participate in the additional leave scheme.
• Additional annual leave will only be agreed when the period of absence will not require cover to meet the needs of the service at any additional cost to the University.
• Employees must have a clear understanding of the terms and conditions and key facts of the scheme before they formally enter into the arrangements.
• The employee can take a maximum of 219 hours (equivalent to 30 standard days) additional leave in any one leave year or pro-rata for a part-time employee who works for less than 36.5 hours per week.
• The additional annual leave must be taken within the annual leave year, only 36.5 hours, pro rata can be carried over, as per your Terms and Conditions.
• A request for additional annual leave must include details of when the leave is to be taken to maximise the efficiency of service delivery planning.
• Where the employee is unable to take their leave due to prolonged sickness, maternity leave, paternity, shared parental leave or adoption leave, the circumstances will be considered on a case by case basis.
• On termination of employment, reconciliation will be made of the employee’s annual leave entitlement. The employee will be required to take any outstanding annual leave during their notice period. Only in exceptional circumstances will payment be made in lieu.  If the employee has taken in excess of their proportionate annual leave in the leave year, he/she will be required to repay the equivalent salary through a deduction from their final salary.

Approval Process

Requests for additional annual leave will be given consideration in the first month of each leave year. i.e January. Faculty PVC and Heads of Professional Service Departments may, at their discretion, consider requests for additional annual leave during the year where an employee’s circumstances change.

An employee may request to have a maximum of 219 additional annual leave hours (pro rata for part time employees i.e. mapped in against their work schedule) in a leave year. The leave year runs from 1st January to 31st December.

All requests to buy additional annual leave will be considered by the appropriate Faculty PVC or Head of Professional Service Department taking into consideration the operational needs of the Department/Institute. Requests should be made through the application form which can be found at top of the page.

The outcomes from the request will be:

• Granted in full
• Granted in part
• Declined

Where it is not possible to accommodate the full request, a written response will be provided detailing the reason why.

Where the leave requested is declined, there will be no right of appeal under this policy.

Once the request has been approved by the appropriate manager it will not be possible to rescind the leave already purchased during the leave year.

The employees annual leave balance will then be updated on ABW.

Paying for Additional Annual Leave

The additional hours annual leave will be paid for through one of the following methods:

A deduction from salary as one lump sum in advance of taking the additional leave;

A deduction from salary over a maximum of 12 consecutive months commencing following approval of of your purchase.  

The employee will complete the necessary mandate for the deduction to be processed at the time of submitting the request to buy additional annual leave.

Additional annual leave will be calculated against the employee’s hourly rate of pay times the number of hours purchased.

e.g.      36.5 hours x Sp 13 (£12.48/hour) = £455.52

7.5 hours x Sp 13 (£12.48/hour) = £93.60

219 hours x SP 13 (£12.48/hour) = £2733.12