[Werk/Law] Holiday Entitlement

[dancefloorlandmine]

New legislation coming into force on 1st October 2007 increases the holiday rights for those working a five day week to 24 days a year. Which means that I will get another day a year, as I get 20 days and an additional three between Christmas and New Year which don't count as part of our allocation, but would probably be included.

Additionally, from April 2009, the statutory allowance will be 28 days.

Meanwhile, I'm also trying to push for an additional day per year of service. This may have something to do with the fact that I'm one of the longest-serving members of staff ...

Comments

[ellenscult]

Ah, that includes bank holidays, technically...

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Yep - I just read that. [sigh] Still, hopefully it'll be beneficial ...

[jfs.livejournal.com]

It always has, though. So a company who offered '20 days leave' under the old legislation could actually have given you 12 days plus 8 days bank holidays. Don't know any UK companies that actually did this.

I'm going to be interested to see if it makes any difference working for a University. We already get a silly amount of leave, so they might actually just say 'you're so far over the legal minimum that we're not going to change anything.' Which would be reasonable, but somewhat annoying :-)

[ellenscult]

My company won't be upping our entitlement; we get 24 days plus bank holidays.

[jinxcw.livejournal.com]

We currently get 25 days per year, plus every four years we get an additional 4-week (i.e. 20 work-days) sabbatical which can be taken as a 4-week chunk or as two 2-week chunks any time within a 2 year period... So in effect an average of 30 days per year. Plus Bank Holidays of course. :-)

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

Does this mean that as I get 20 days leave plus the Bank Holidays, I will now get, say, 22 plus the bank holidays? Colour me confused. As usual.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Not quite.

At present 20 days is the statutory leave. Legally speaking, your employers are not required to give you bank holidays off, so those are a bonus.
What will probably happen is that you will go up to 24 days plus bank holidays. However, because your current allowance (20+8 = 28 days) is more than 24, they're not obliged to.

Err, did that make any sense?

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, it did. If they don't, I shall Pout.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

[grin][hugs]

[kingwamba.livejournal.com]

Still, I think that any additional time off is good. Too bad we don't get near the amount in the States.

[duoinchains.livejournal.com]

I'd always understood that the US only get effectively 2 weeks paid vacation time, though they get more in the way of bank hols.

In fact.. looking deeper into this, US workers have no mandatory entitlement to paid annual leave (or public hols for that matter)

So the 'mer'cans I know obviously work for caring companies which do grant them a minimum of 10 days per year.

http://www.etui-rehs.org/research/media/files/eeepb/2007/3_2007

Austria and Portugal both offer a whopping 35 days off (22 days annual + 13 public holidays)


Me... LUL (being a caring company) awards me 29 days pa in addition to the 8 Bank Hols - it's worked out on the basis of 7.4 weeks paid leave for all staff (individual requirements is 7.4 x average shifts worked per week)

Plus LUL grant 1 extra day after 25 years service (only 7.5 years more to go...) and a further day after 40 years service.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

a further day after 40 years service
Woah! You can tell that's a rule from a time gone past!

[duoinchains.livejournal.com]

Woah! You can tell that's a rule from a time gone past!

Mhmmmm.... thing is, LUL is the sort of company where people do stick around - many of my colleagues have found their niche and will probably stay in their jobs for life (schedule compilation being a somewhat specialized job). At least 4 of my colleagues have put in 40+ years and many more 25+. While I plan to retire around 55-60 (after 35-40 years service) I have no plans to change company or job (if I can help it!)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

schedule compilation being a somewhat specialized job
True enough!

[duoinchains.livejournal.com]

Even more interesting (from that same report) is that some countries actually pay you more whilst you're on leave - in the case of Austria, Sweden and Belguim, equal (or almost equal) to an additional month's pay (sometimes taxed at a lower rate too), presumably so you can immediately pay off the holiday you've just had ^_^

That said... some countries have rules which state you must take all/most of your leave allocation in one block >.<

And there are variations in how much leave you could 'carry over' into the following year - I'm allowed to carry a maximum of 10 days, but they have to be used by the end of the Feb.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

some countries have rules which state you must take all/most of your leave allocation in one block
Ouch!

I'm allowed to carry a maximum of 10 days
I'm not 'supposed' to be able to carry any, but fortunately my line manager's not that cruel, and allows a couple, as long as they're used up in the next couple of months.

[vatine]

INdeed, the rules for carrying vacation in Sweden approaches "insanely complicated". To start with, you have 25 work-days guaranteed, plus national holidays. Nice and simple.

Of that, you MUST take 10 days during the year, they cannot be carried and cannot be exchanged for money (though if by virtue of vacation-accruing policies, you have less than 10 paid days, you only need to use your paid days). The remainder is split into two portions. The last 5 days (the so-caleld "fifth week") can be saved for up to five years. The remainder must be used within three years. Vacation days that reach their best-before date (that is, they've been kept around until the storage expires) are converted to pay, as per pay-rate when they were accrued.

It gets a bit more complicated, because parts of the vacation laws are widely not adhered to (specifically, you MUST use accumulated days from previous years before using the days from the current year and the 10-day minimum is from the annual allocation) and when you take into account the various systems for accounting for "earned vacation" (there's a few popular systems around, starting with "you get N free days, determined by how long you were employed in the previous holiday-year", all the way to systems so obscure I can only describe them on a whiteboard).

And, yes, I did spend quite a few years being employed in Sweden and found the subject fascinating (not to mention found iit abysmally hard to use the 30 days + national hols I had at one job).

It's true

[kingwamba.livejournal.com]

But most companies are "kind". It doesn't hurt them to "allow" an employee 40 hours of PTO (Paid Time Off), and another week of unscheduled absences. PTO can accue in most cases.

But nothing is set in stone.

[k425.livejournal.com]

We may not get the amount in the States, but I think I prefer our allowances for sick leave etc!

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, I'm also trying to push for an additional day per year of service.

That is, after all, the traditional reward/loyalty bonus for working in those areas where the remuneration is otherwise not the best (ie Civil Service)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Also, I'd really like another week off each year - and I could really do with it ...

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

(oops, hit 'post' too soon) so I'm kinda surprised the charity sector isn't doing it already.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I believe quite a few parts of the charity sector may well be. [cough] Another reason for suggesting it - parity leads to greater staff retention ...

[silenttex.livejournal.com]

We get 30 days + bank holidays, though some of that has to be used for the closure between Xmas and New Year.

[ladycat.livejournal.com]

It depends where you work. They recognise our work is stressful, so we get 30 days, plus the bank holidays and flexi-time/TOIL. It's pretty fluffy :-)