Annual Leave

Annual Leave

Your holiday year starts on your birthday. Annual leave entitlement for full-time NJC employees is as follows:

Annual leave entitlement (including bank holidays) is pro-rata if you are employed part time. Additional long service leave entitlement, following both 5 years and 10 years service will be granted pro rata from the date of completing 5 or 10 years continuous service.  

All holiday must be taken during the holiday year in which it is accrued. In exceptional circumstances a maximum of five days may be carried over from one holiday year to the next but this can be done only with the prior written approval of the Director or your department or nominated representative. In this case, any holiday carried over must be taken no later than 3 months from the date of carry over.

All holiday dates must be approved in advance by your line manager in line with departmental holiday notification procedures. As much notice as possible of proposed holiday dates must be given to ensure adequate staffing coverage at all times. As a minimum such notice should be at least twice the number of days' leave that you wish to take as annual leave however local procedures may require a longer period to ensure adequate cover arrangements and preparation of rotas.

Holiday Pay in Lieu

There will be no payment in lieu of any holiday not taken (except on termination).

Public and Bank Holidays

We recognise eight public/bank holidays a year, the dates of which vary from year to year (see below).

• New Year’s Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Early May Bank Holiday
• Spring Bank Holiday
• August Bank Holiday
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

All recognised public and bank holidays are permitted as paid holiday in addition to the annual holiday entitlement specified above (pro-rata if you are part time). Depending on where you work you may be required to work on recognised public and bank holidays. Payment for working on such days and/or arrangements for time off in lieu are in accordance with your specific terms and conditions of employment.

Holiday Entitlement in Year of Commencement

If you join us part way through a holiday year, you will be entitled to a proportion of your holiday entitlement based on the period of your employment in that holiday year.

Holiday Pay on Termination of Employment

If you leave us part way through a holiday year, you will be entitled to be paid for any accrued annual leave for that holiday year that has not been taken by the date of termination.

If, on the date of your termination, you have taken paid holiday leave in excess of earned entitlement, you will be required to reimburse us (by means of deduction from salary if necessary) in respect of such holiday.

No payment in lieu of accrued contractual holiday will be made to you (and where appropriate a deduction will be made from salary) in the event of your termination for gross misconduct or in the event of you giving inadequate notice of termination or leaving before the contractual notice period has expired. Contractual holiday for these purposes means all and any leave entitlement provided for in the employee's contract that is over and above the minimum statutory leave period provided for in the Working Time Regulations 1998 (i.e. 5.6 weeks or a maximum of 28 days).

Sickness and Holiday

If you fall sick or are injured while on holiday, we will allow you to transfer to sick leave and take replacement holiday at a later time. This policy is subject to the following strict conditions:

• The total period of incapacity must be fully certificated by a qualified   medical practitioner.
• You must contact your line manager by telephone, on the first day of any known period of incapacity during a holiday.
• You must submit a written request to your line manager no later than 14 calendar days after returning to work setting out how much of the holiday period was affected by sickness and the amount of leave that you wish to take at another time.
• Where you are overseas when you fall ill or are injured, evidence must still be produced that you were ill by way of either a medical certificate or proof of a claim on an insurance policy for medical treatment received at the overseas location.
• All costs of medical certification are to be incurred by you.

Where you fulfill all of the above conditions, we will grant you the same number of days' replacement holiday leave in the current leave year as the number of holiday days lost due to sickness or injury. The replacement leave must be taken in the employee’s current leave year wherever practicable. Where carry over of leave is necessary due to the granting of replacement holiday leave, only the statutory element of any untaken leave may be carried over (with statutory annual leave being assumed to have been the first taken in any leave year).

If you are ill or injured before the start of a period of planned holiday, we may agree to you postponing the holiday dates to another mutually agreed time (in that leave year whenever possible). Any period of sickness absence will then be treated in accordance with the Sickness Absence Management Policy. You must request the postponement of the planned holiday with your line manager and this must be accompanied by a letter from your doctor confirming that you are unfit, or are likely to be unfit, to take the holiday.

You must request to take any replacement holiday in accordance with this policy, and should endeavour to take the replacement holiday in the same holiday year in which it was accrued. However, where your line manager accepts that you have good reason for not being able to do so, we will allow you to carry the statutory element of any untaken leave forward into the next holiday year. We may require you to take all or part of your replacement holiday on particular days as determined by your line manager and service requirements. At least the minimum notice period under the Working Time Directive will be provided in such cases (i.e. twice the number of days notice of the period of leave).