This guidance supplements, and should be read in conjunction with, the University’s particular terms and conditions of employment which include annual leave for staff on grades A-I and annual leave for staff on grades J and above.
Staff requesting annual leave should consider the operational requirements of their role and, where possible, arrange annual leave with these in mind. For example, staff in student-facing roles (both professional services and academic) should avoid taking annual leave during times when they have teaching commitments or during exam periods if they are directly involved in the examination arrangements.
Line-managers have the right to refuse an annual leave request if there is an operational requirement for the member of staff to be available.
Staff should not book holidays, flights or event tickets until the annual leave has been authorised by their line-manager.
Annual leave shall normally be taken in the year in which it accrues and not more than five days’ entitlement may be carried forward into the following year, unless it cannot be taken for operational reasons. If additional days are to be carried over staff should discuss this in the first instance with their line manager prior to the end of the year. Line managers should discuss with the appropriate Section Head/Departmental Manager if the accrued days are substantially over the five-day allocation.
It is the responsibility of line-managers to liaise with their local Absence Co-ordinator in order to calculate annual leave. Schools are required to develop local systems for approving annual leave in line with the following principles:
The system for recording annual leave should be transparent to staff within the team.
All staff should be treated in an equitable fashion.
Where operationally possible, line-managers should approve annual leave requests.
Absence Coordinators can use MyERP to check annual leave entitlement for most non-clinical main staff in their area.
In addition, colleagues with a clinical role and with an Honorary NHS Contract will need to be mindful of the following:
Annual leave MAY need to be agreed with management within both the University and the NHS Trust;
The annual leave that is accrued MAY need to be taken on a pro rata basis in line with the individual Job Plan. For example, a 50/50 split of PAs would mean 50% annual leave would be taken from ‘academic PAs’ and 50% would be taken from ‘clinical PAs’;
Where a Clinical Academic is on a Job Plan that varies from the normal 50/50 split of PAs (for example a 9-3 PA split), the situation with respect to annual leave entitlement should be clarified with HR in the University and the Trust at the time that the Job Plan is agreed/reviewed;
Clinical academics have an annual leave entitlement that matches NHS terms and conditions, BUT their leave year timing matches the University’s leave year ie the leave year commences 1st of January.
