We believe that days off are a necessity, not a luxury – it’s time to disconnect, recharge and focus on you and your family. It’s all part of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. As our employee, you have certain rights and responsibilities when it comes to annual leave, which we have explained below. These rules and procedures help us ensure that holidays are handled fairly and transparently.
Holiday entitlement
Your holiday entitlement is confirmed in your Contract of Employment. For most people, it will be 5.6 weeks per year, up to a maximum of 28 days in total. If you work part-time or irregular hours, your holiday entitlement accrues on a pro-rata basis.
Our holiday year runs from 1st September to 31st August. If you join part-way through a holiday year, your holidays will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Please be sure to use all of your holiday entitlement. Unused days cannot be carried forward into a new holiday year and no payment will be made in respect of holidays not taken. It is therefore in your interests to take your full annual leave entitlement in each holiday year.
Holiday pay
A portion of the rate agreed with your recruitment agency for your services is holiday pay. This can either be paid to you in advance, or be accrued by us and paid to you when you take a holiday. By default your holiday pay will be advanced, but you can choose for it to be accrued if you prefer.
Advanced
When you get your holiday pay in advance, it means that a percentage of each weekly/monthly payment is in respect of holiday pay. You’ll see this noted on your pay advice slips.
When you take your holidays, the amount of holiday pay which has been advanced will be offset against our liability to pay for the annual leave which is actually taken. You may not, therefore, receive a payment at the time you take your holidays if your advanced holiday pay covers that in full.
Accrued
When your holiday pay is accrued, you will get it when you’re on annual leave, as long as that annual leave has been requested and approved.
Visit our employee support centre for more information about holiday pay, including how to switch between advanced and accrued.
Requesting annual leave
Being a contractor means having more freedom to take advantage of bargain flights and midweek days out, if that’s what you decide to do. When you’re not working on an assignment, you can take your annual leave whenever suits you best, but please let us know when you intend to do so. Out of courtesy, you should also tell your agency.
However, if you want to take a holiday on a day that you’ve agreed to work, this must be agreed in advance by your recruitment agency who will consider the needs of your workplace before making a decision. You must request the holiday in good time but no less than 14 working days in advance, and always before booking tickets etc. Please let us know what has been agreed.
Wherever possible we will agree with your agency’s decision, but we reserve the right to refuse leave.
Holidays taken without prior authorisation will not be paid for and will be regarded as a disciplinary matter.