Holiday leave and career breaks

This section will help you to understand which members of your are legally entitled to , how much they can take and how much you must pay them while they are on leave. It will also help you to understand what restrictions you can place on when take their leave, what to do about unused holiday allowance, how interacts with other types of leave (such as sick leave) and how to deal with requests for unpaid leave.

Dealing with annual leave

  1. 1.What are my obligations around staff going on annual leave?
  2. 2.Which staff are entitled to annual leave?
  3. 3.Is my agency worker entitled to annual leave?
  4. 4.Are freelancers entitled to take paid annual leave?
  5. 5.How many days per year are staff allowed to take as annual leave?
  6. 6.How much leave are part-time staff entitled to?
  7. 7.How much leave are shift-workers or those who work irregular hours entitled to?
  8. 8.How do I calculate annual leave entitlement if a staff member joins or leaves my business part way through the holiday year?
  9. 9.How much do I have to pay staff whilst they are on annual leave?
  10. 10.How do I work out how much I need to pay staff on annual leave when their pay is variable?
  11. 11.How do I work out how much to pay staff on annual leave if they have an annualised hours contract?
  12. 12.What is rolled-up holiday pay?
  13. 13.What happens if a worker who receives rolled-up holiday pay goes off sick or is on parental leave?
  14. 14.How much notice can I require a staff member to give me before taking annual leave?
  15. 15.Can I refuse an annual leave request if a staff member doesn't give me sufficient notice?
  16. 16.What can I do if a staff member takes annual leave without giving advanced notice?
  17. 17.Can I refuse a staff member's annual leave request if it is inconvenient for my business?
  18. 18.How do I deal with multiple annual leave requests for the same period?
  19. 19.Can I specify or restrict when staff may take their annual leave?
  20. 20.Do I have to let my staff take days off for bank or public holidays?
  21. 21.Do I have to let my staff take days off for religious holidays or events?
  22. 22.Do I have to allow my staff to carry over unused annual leave to the next holiday year?
  23. 23.How much annual leave can I allow my staff to carry over to the next holiday year?
  24. 24.Can my staff carry over annual leave to the following year if they have been on sick leave?
  25. 25.Can my staff carry over annual leave to the following year if they have been on maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave?
  26. 26.Can my staff carry over annual leave due to the effects of COVID-19?
  27. 27.Can I allow my staff to buy or sell holiday leave?
  28. 28.Do my staff continue to accrue annual leave entitlement whilst they are on sick leave?
  29. 29.Do my staff continue to accrue annual leave entitlement whilst they are on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave?
  30. 30.What should I do if a staff member is sick during their annual leave?
  31. 31.Can an employee take annual leave during maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave?
  32. 32.Do I have to pay staff for unused holiday when they leave?
  33. 33.If a staff member leaves having taken more annual leave than they are entitled to, can I make them pay for those days?

Career breaks and unpaid leave

  1. 34.Am I required to offer career breaks or unpaid leave to my staff?
  2. 35.How should I respond to a request for a career break or unpaid leave?
  3. 36.What should a career break policy say?
  4. 37.If I offer a career break to one staff member, must I offer the same to others?

Checklist for departing staff

Use this checklist for departing staff to tick off the various tasks you need to undertake when a staff member leaves your business, and make sure you don’t forget anything important. This checklist covers practical matters for the security of your premises, like returning keys, and administrative matters, like dealing with final salary payments. It also includes measures to take to protect your business interests, such as removing the individual’s access to your internal systems. You can also purchase this checklist as part of the TUPE transfer toolkit for outgoing employer .

Career break arrangements letter

A career break is a period of unpaid leave taken by a staff member over and above their normal holiday leave allowance. A career break arrangements letter is a letter approving a request for a career break by an employee and setting out the terms applicable to it. Use this letter to agree to a career break request from a staff member who is an employee. It can be used whatever the reason for their request is and is intended to be used in conjunction with your business’ career break policy, if you have one. This letter includes an option to warn your staff member that the same role may not be available to them when they return.
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