Booking leave

  • Agree the dates of your leave in advance with your line manager. Try and give as much notice as possible, especially when taking large blocks of leave.
  • Your department will have a system for recording leave which you should use.
  • When booking your leave, your contracted daily hours should be used (not your planned hours). For example, if your standard weekly contracted hours are 37 hours per week, you will need to book 7.4 hours for each day of leave.

Bank holidays and closure days

  • There are eight UK bank holidays each year. The University also closes for three or four days (depending on when Christmas falls) over the Christmas/New Year period.
  • If you are not at work because the University is closed for a bank holiday or closure day then you still need to use annual leave. Deduct the number of hours you would have worked from your entitlement.
  • Look ahead at the start of each leave year and work out which days you will not work because of bank holidays and closure days. Deduct the hours you will use on these days first so that you know how much leave you have left to take at a time of your choosing.
  • Regardless of working pattern, staff contracted to the same number of hours will be entitled to the same amount of leave. However, depending on working pattern and when bank holidays and closure days fall, you may have more or less control over when you take your leave than someone else who works the same number of hours but at different times.

Untaken annual leave

  • With the agreement of your line manager you can carry up to five days' leave into a new leave year.
  • Exceptionally your Head of Department may allow you to carry forward up to ten days' leave.