Summer is the most popular time of year that employees look to book time off. Find out how much holiday time your employees are entitled to with our guide.
The summer holiday period can be a busy time for annual leave requests. Whether you’re a parent juggling childcare with work and school holidays, or an employer trying to keep your business running throughout summer, it can be difficult to manage everyone’s requirements.
Now is the time of year when many of us focus our thoughts to holidays and it is important to get holiday entitlement and holiday pay right. All employees are entitled to paid holiday, no matter what type of work you do. Whether it’s full-time, part-time, agency or casual. The only situation where you won’t be entitled to paid holiday is if you’re self-employed.
Most workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave and additional annual leave may be agreed as part of a worker’s contract. A week of leave should allow workers to be away from work for a week – i.e. it should be the same amount of time as the working week. If a worker does a five-day week, he or she is entitled to 28 days leave.
However, for a worker who works 6 days a week the statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days. If they work a three-day week, the entitlement is 16.8 days leave. Employers can set the times that workers take their leave, for example for a Christmas shut down. If a worker’s employment ends, they have a right to be paid for the leave due and not taken.
Tips for employers to promote well-being in the workplace.
- Assess whether your strategy offers employees enough choice and flexibility
- Support flexible working patterns to enable people with many obligations to remain in work
- Introduce health and well being policies to promote healthier lifestyles
- Encourage and support people to take all of their holidays
- If possible, conduct employee survey for feedback over holidays and workload issues
For more in depth information, please contact one of our experts today.
