Time Off - Holiday Policy
- Contractual Information -
Holiday Year
The FSA’s holiday year runs from 1 June to 31 May.
You are encouraged to take all your holiday. Line management will take reasonable measures to ensure that you are not prevented from doing so on account of workload.
Normal holiday entitlement
If you are a permanent full-time member of staff, your minimum annual holiday is 20 days. If you work part-time, your minimum annual holiday is calculated according to the number of days/hours you work in proportion to the FSA’s normal working days/hours. Bank and public holidays are in addition to minimum annual holiday. When you begin work for the FSA you are entitled to normal holiday calculated on a pro rata basis.
Under the Flexible Benefits Plan, if you are a permanent member of staff you may request additional holiday as one of the flexible options.
The term ‘holiday’ in this section, unless otherwise stated, refers to the minimum annual holiday entitlement plus any additional days purchased under the Flexible Benefits Plan.
If you are participating in the Flexitime Scheme, leave under that scheme does not form part of your holiday entitlement.
You should try to take all your holiday in the holiday year. However, it is recognised that this is not always possible, so the carrying forward of holiday entitlement is permitted. There is no actual limit to the amount of holiday you can carry forward, providing your total entitlement for the following year does not exceed 38.
In exceptional circumstances you may be able to take up to three days of your next year’s holiday entitlement during the current holiday year but this must be authorised in advance by your manager.
Approval and special conditions
When planning to take holiday you must give notice in advance. Before you take holiday or make definite arrangements, you will need to obtain approval from your manager. Requests should be made on the appropriate form which should then be signed by your manager. The notice period should be at least double the length of the holiday. For example, five days leave will require a minimum of 10 days notice.
At least one break of ten days or more should be taken in each holiday year. If you work part-time you are also required to take at least one break lasting ten days or more but non-working days may be included in this period. If you are unable to take ten days holiday at one time (if, for example you need to use a large proportion of your holiday entitlement for religious observance) you should discuss the matter with your manager.
We will make every effort to enable you to take holiday as requested but may not grant permission if operational needs make it necessary for you to be at work. We will inform you, as soon as we can, if it is not possible for you to take holiday as requested.
If you join the FSA part way through the holiday year, your entitlement will be pro-rated within the initial holiday year. The table below shows you the number of days available to you based on joining on the 1st working day of the month:
| Date of Joining | Core Days |
|---|---|
| 1 Jun | 20 |
| 1 Jul | 18.5 |
| 1 Aug | 17 |
| 1 Sep | 15 |
| 1 Oct | 13.5 |
| 1 Nov | 12 |
| 1 Dec | 10 |
| 1 Jan | 8.5 |
| 1 Feb | 7 |
| 1 Mar | 5 |
| 1 Apr | 3.5 |
| 1 May | 2 |
If you join after the 1st working day of the month, you will receive holiday for the month you join as set out in the table below plus the core allowance shown above from the 1st of the following month:
| Date of joining | Additional Core Amount |
|---|---|
| 2nd to 10th (inclusive) | 1.5 |
| 11th to 20th (inclusive) | 1 |
| 21st to end of month (inclusive) | 0.5 |
For example, if you join the FSA on 12th November, your total core allowance will be 11 days. This is based on receiving 1 day from 12th to 30th November and 10 days from 1st December to the end of the following May.
If you resign from the FSA or have been given notice of termination, your holiday entitlement will be calculated on the basis of the number of completed calendar months of service in your final holiday year. You may be able to take holiday during the notice period provided that the holiday was booked/authorised before the start of the notice period. Other requests to take accrued holiday during the notice period will normally be granted but permission may be refused if business needs or other circumstances make the granting of holiday at that time impracticable. If on the termination of employment you have not taken your full accrued holiday entitlement subject as follows, you will be paid for your accrued entitlement up to the date of termination of your employment. If you have taken more holiday than you are entitled to, we reserve the right to deduct the value of days taken in excess of your accrued entitlement from the final salary payment made to you.
Holiday entitlement will not continue to accrue during a period of enforced leave of absence and any untaken holiday entitlement will be deemed to have been taken during such a period of leave.
Holiday payment
Holiday pay will be based on pensionable salary and holiday pay due to you or deducted from your final pay will be calculated as follows:-
if you work every day of the week (Monday to Friday inclusive) on a full-time or part-time basis, holiday pay is:
Pensionable salary ÷ 260 x number of untaken days entitlement or number of days holiday taken in excess of holiday entitlement (as the case may be); |
if you work on some but not all of such working days, regardless of how many hours you are required to work on those days, holiday pay is:
Pensionable salary ÷ A x number of untaken days holiday entitlement or number of days holiday taken in excess of holiday entitlement (as the case may be) Where A is the number of days per week worked x 52. |
Payment for untaken leave will only be made if you are leaving the FSA.
Employees are not entitled to holiday pay in respect of accrued untaken holiday which is above the statutory minimum on termination of employment in the following circumstances:-
dismissal without notice for gross misconduct or conduct that brings or may bring the FSA into disrepute;
leaving the FSA without giving due notice;
for any period of enforced leave of absence following notice (where the entitlement is deemed to have been taken during the period of enforced leave).
Bank and public holidays which fall on normal working days are in addition to holiday entitlement for full-time staff.
If you work on a part-time basis you are entitled to bank and public holidays on a pro-rata basis to reflect the number of days per week which you normally work, regardless of whether you work fewer than the normal working hours of any day. Please discuss in advance any arrangements for bank and public holidays with your line management.
Payment for bank and public holidays to staff on short-term contracts is calculated in the same way as for permanent full-time and part-time staff.
You will not usually be required to work on any public holiday. Where bank and public holidays fall on days on which you normally work, such days will be taken from your public holiday entitlement.
If, in the particular holiday year, the number of bank and public holidays which fall on days on which you normally work exceeds your public holiday entitlement, you will not be paid for those days which exceed your public holiday entitlement and holiday pay calculated as described above will be deducted from your Adjusted Salary in respect of each such day. Alternatively, you may work on another day (provided it is not a public holiday) – usually in the same week – or have a reduction in your minimum annual holiday entitlement equivalent to all or some of those days which exceed your public holiday entitlement.
Where, in a particular holiday year, no bank and public holidays fall on days on which you normally work and you are, therefore, not able to take all of your public holiday entitlement, you are entitled to take your public holiday entitlement on a day or days on which you normally work. The entitlement must be taken in the relevant holiday year. As with all other holiday, all public holiday entitlement taken on days other than bank and public holidays must be approved before being taken. Please discuss requests with your manager who will consult the HR Helpline.
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