Methodist Council Leave Policy

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1 Ref: D&P/DK Leave Policy version Methodist Council Leave Policy 1. Introduction Annual Leave Entitlement The process Refused annual leave Handovers and returning to work after a period of annual leave Delay on return from Annual Leave New Starters and annual leave request Annual Leave on termination of employment Carry over days Bank Holidays Christmas and New Year s Arrangements Emergency and Special Leave What is emergency leave? Who is a dependent? Special Leave Emergency Leave and Special Leave procedure: Removal Leave Compassionate Leave Unpaid Leave Study Leave Fair use of policy 9 1 P a g e

2 1. Introduction The Methodist Council supports the welfare and wellbeing of staff by providing and encouraging the use of appropriate leave in order to generate a positive working environment. This policy provides information and clarity on the different types of authorised leave available to Methodist Council staff and allows transparency so employees know what procedures to follow according to the type of leave being requested, and managers can ensure consistency on the various types of leave across the Connexional Team. Employees can request planned and unplanned absences with their manager in a more organised and accountable environment. The policy applies to all employees of the Methodist Council working in the Connexional Team including employees on fixed-term contracts as indicated under each leave category. For presbyters and deacons appointed to work in the Connexional Team, please refer to Part III of CPD 2014 page 761. The Methodist Council has incorporated legislative descriptions and recommendations in this policy deriving from the Employment Relations Act 2004 and Working Time Directive The following types of leave are covered under this Policy: Annual Leave Christmas and New Year arrangements Emergency and Special Leave Removal Leave Compassionate Leave Study Leave For leave relating to the following, please refer to the relevant policies and procedures. Flexi Time Scheme Time off in Lieu (TOIL) Sickness Absence Maternity, Paternity, Parental and Adoption leave The term Employees in this document refers to those appointed to the Connexional Team 2 P a g e

3 2. Annual Leave Annual leave is an opportunity for people to take time off and recuperate. The Methodist Council is committed to treating all employees fairly, employees on part time contracts will be treated comparably with their full time colleagues. The Methodist Council wants to advocate wellbeing and the appropriate work life balance, the outlined procedures are in place to allow a transparent and fair procedure. 2.1 Entitlement The minimum statutory paid annual leave entitlement that employers are required to give employees is 28 days per year (based on a full time employee) including bank holidays. The Methodist Council exceeds this entitlement as outlined below. Annual leave entitlement starts from 1 January to 31 December each year. For full time employees 25 days plus bank holidays The allowance will vary depending on years worked. 1 4 years service 5-9 years 28 days plus bank holidays Ten years + continuous service 30 days plus bank holidays For Presbyters and Deacons Standard ministerial conditions apply. These are set out in Standing Order Ministers appointed to the Team The holiday year for ordained post holders in the Team will be calculated according to the standard ministerial practice of September-August. Guidelines set out in CPD (Book VI (B) Section 2) recommend that ministers take 35 days leave each year from their duties, as well as the standard public holidays. Five working weeks of leave per year, which is the equivalent to 25 working days taken from week day duties in the Team (Mon-Fri). In addition, employees receive 3 extra days of paid leave for the Christmas and New Year Period when the office is closed. Please refer to the section on Christmas and New Year Arrangements for further information. A pro- rata equivalent entitlement applies for part time employees. 2.2 The process Connexional Team employees are expected to take annual leave on a regular basis and manage this time themselves. Employees need to use their full annual leave entitlement by the end of the calendar year. It is the employee s responsibility to request and agree annual leave in advance. It is the manager s responsibility to consider the request for annual leave and make sure the arrangements fit the team and organisational demands before approving the leave. 3 P a g e

4 Managers should also encourage employees to plan for and use their annual leave entitlement throughout the calendar year. Employees must request annual leave using Cascade HR. The employee s line manager will either approve or reject the leave request. In the event that an employee needs to take annual leave and the Cascade HR authorisation does not appear on their Cascade record, the employee should speak to their line manager. In the absence of the line manager they should speak to to their line manager s manager. For fairness, approval should be granted on a first come first serve basis. Under the Working Time Regulations 1998 an employee who wishes to take annual leave must give notice equal to twice the length of holiday he or she wishes to take. For example; for 3 days leave please make a request one week before. To help prepare for an employee s absence, an employee is required to request leave with as much notice as possible. An employee must not book a holiday until their line manager has authorised the annual leave request. Development and Personnel will send reminders to line managers about remaining annual leave entitlements in their teams, this reminder will be sent at the end of the third quarter of the calendar year. 2.3 Refused annual leave The line manager needs to provide an organisational reason for not authorising an annual leave request. The maximum block of leave that can be requested for one period of absence due to annual leave is normally 10 working days, if you wish to take more than this in one period, you would need to discuss this in advance with your line manager. The minimum annual leave that can be requested is half a day. To take flexi leave please refer to the Flexi Leave Policy. 2.4 Handovers and returning to work after a period of annual leave It is good practice for employees and line managers to diarise a handover session prior to the employee going on annual leave. Equally, a review session should also be scheduled on their return to enable both to catch up and discuss work priorities, this allows the employee to settle back in and avoid stressful situations. Where the leave is for less than a week line managers may prefer written handover notes. Managers should can use their discretion on how handovers are communicated taking into account time and availability. 2.5 Delay on return from Annual Leave In situations where an employee is unable to return to work due to unforeseen circumstances, such as travel delays, the following guidelines can help manage situations. Employees must inform the line manager at once, where this is not possible, they should contact another senior manager or the line manager s manager. The staff member should provide regular updates if the delay continues for more than one day. The line manager can ask for evidence in the form of documentation to verify the reason of the delay that resulted in the delay of the employee returning to work. Where the manager has been notified of the estimated date of return, this should be recorded and revisited once the employee returns to work. 4 P a g e

5 At this stage appropriate options should be discussed in how this absence should be recorded. This can depend on how many days were originally taken, how many annual leave days does the employee have left, how late was the return to work. For example, if an employee was delayed by one working day you may both agree to record this one day as annual leave. However, if the delay was by a few hours, this might be made up during a set period of time. How this is recorded will depend on individual circumstances. Failure to return to work after annual leave and not informing the line manager of the delay can be treated as unauthorised absence, and is therefore a disciplinary offence. 2.6 New Starters and annual leave request Annual leave begins to accrue on the employee s first day of employment. Annual leave should not be taken during the employee s probationary period unless sufficient days have been accrued to cover the requested holiday period. For employees joining the Council near to the end of the calendar year, a discussion should be held as part of the induction process to ensure that accrued days are taken by the year end. In circumstances were an employee joins the organisation with already arranged holiday, this should be communicated either at the interview or before accepting the offer. It would be fair and reasonable for the line manager to consider agreeing this leave, depending on the length of the leave and the effect on work commitments and team deadlines during this holiday period. 2.7 Annual Leave on termination of employment The annual leave entitlement for an employee will be recalculated according to the employee s official end date of employment. If there is outstanding annual leave due to the employee, a discussion with the employee and line manager will need to take place to determine whether the employee will take this outstanding annual leave or whether they wish to be paid in lieu of the outstanding annual leave. If the employee wishes to be paid for any outstanding annual leave, Development and Personnel will need to be informed by the line manager as soon as possible. If an employee has taken more annual leave than their pro-rata entitlement, they will be required to reimburse the equivalent number of days through their final salary payment. 2.8 Carry over days To encourage a healthy work-life balance, the Methodist Council encourage employees to take their annual leave entitlement in the same leave year period, thus do not promote carrying over leave to the next holiday year. Employees are should plan ahead and manage annual leave across the calendar year. Annual leave may only be carried over to the next year in exceptional circumstances 1 Cascade does not automatically carry over annual leave to the next holiday calendar year. Carrying over annual leave is not an automatic right, authorisation from a Cluster Head is required (an from the Cluster Head is sufficient). Authorisation from the Cluster must 1 Exceptional Circumstances: Where employees are prevented from taking their full annual leave entitlement before the end of the leave year because of specific organisational needs Where employees are prevented from taking annual leave because of sick leave Where an employee has been on maternity / adoption leave Where an employee has taken extended paternity leave in line with legislation 5 P a g e

6 be sent to no later than the end of week 2 in December stating the exceptional circumstance that has lead to the need for the request. Failure to do this will result in the employee losing the requested number of annual leave days. Development and Personnel cannot take responsibility for those who did not make a request and leave will not be added to your entitlement after this date. Any exceptionally agreed carry over days will need to be updated on Cascade HR which can only be completed by the Development and Personnel Team. A maximum of five working days can be carried over and any days that are carried over must be used by 31 March. 2.9 Bank Holidays In addition to the contractual annual leave allowance, the Methodist Council offers bank holidays as paid leave. To ensure that employees on part time contracts are treated fairly, the pro - rata bank holiday entitlement is worked out by the hours a staff member works. For part-time employees whose normal week includes Monday, this may mean needing to work additional hours on other days. 3. Christmas and New Year s Arrangements Methodist Church House and the Connexional Team office in Central Buildings Manchester will be closed during the period from Christmas Day and New Year s Day inclusive, therefore Connexional Team employees based at Methodist Church House, Methodist Central Hall or home-based must not work unless otherwise specified. These three days will be granted as paid leave in addition to individual annual leave entitlement. Employees will be paid for days they would normally work, but cannot opt to work these days and take the leave another time. The offices will therefore close on Christmas Eve at 5pm and re-open the first working day following New Year s Day. Line managers must ensure appropriate cover is maintained in each office. 4. Emergency and Special Leave The Methodist Council aims to make every reasonable effort to support staff during times of difficulty through the granting of Emergency and Special Leave. The following are the principles that apply for the requesting and granting of leave and to explain the process for the implementation of a fair and equitable procedure. The provisions within this procedure are not exhaustive and if requests for emergency leave or Special Leave fall outside the situations described in this document, the member of staff should speak to their line manager, who may refer the matter to the Development and Personnel Office for further guidance. Methodist Council will grant up to three days paid leave per calendar year, for Emergency or Special Leave, with a pro rata entitlement for part time members of staff. 6 P a g e

7 4.1 What is emergency leave? Emergency leave is intended to provide reasonable time off during working hours to deal with unexpected and sudden incidents involving a dependent and to make longer term care arrangements. This may include any of the following situations When a dependent falls ill or is injured When a dependent is giving birth To make longer term arrangements for care of sick or injured dependent To make arrangements following the death of a dependent To deal with an unexpected incident involving a dependent child during school hours To deal with unexpected disruption or breakdown of care arrangements for a dependent (ie carer falls ill) The emergency and special leave procedure does not include time off for previously known situations. 4.2 Who is a dependent? A spouse or partner A child or children for whom the staff member has parental responsibility A parent A person who lives in the same household as the staff member (for example in-laws) this does not include tenant or lodgers. A person who relies on the staff member s assistance should they be taken ill or injured. Amount of time away from work? When making the decision about how much leave should be granted, consider: The nature of the incident The closeness of the relationship The extent to which anyone else is available to assist Emergency leave is designed to provide time to make arrangements for dependents care and therefore not anticipated to need longer than one or two days for the majority of situations. This will be adjusted pro-rata for part-time staff. 4.3 Special Leave Is paid leave granted to staff to cope with urgent domestic or personal situations, which are not covered by the criteria for Emergency Leave or by other policies. Including but not limited to: Vehicle theft, accident Burglary Emergency repairs It is anticipated that a maximum of one to two days would be maximum time required in majority of cases. 7 P a g e

8 4.4 Emergency Leave and Special Leave procedure: 1. A situation arises for which the member of staff requires Emergency Leave 2. A request should be made to the line manager by telephone or in person as soon as possible stating the nature of the request and likely timeframe for a return to work. 3. If leave is granted this should be requested on Cascade HR providing a summary in the notes section in the Cascade request. 4. The line manager should inform Development and Personnel. 5. The member of staff must keep their line manager informed of any changes in circumstances that may lead to changes in the original request 6. If the line manager feels unable to grant the leave they should provide reason verbally and in writing. 7. Members of staff, line managers and employees making request can seek advice from Development and Personnel. 5. Removal Leave Removal Leave of up to two days paid leave can be granted to employees moving home. It must be agreed with the line manager in advance and will only be granted once every 5 years. Annual leave and TOIL can be used as alternative or to supplement the period of leave. 6. Compassionate Leave Compassionate leave refers to time off given in response to major personal distress, for example bereavement or major domestic crisis. If there is a death in an employee s family, the line manager will grant a period of compassionate leave with pay. Employees of the Connexional team will be granted up to five days compassionate leave following the death of any of the following: spouse or partner; parent; child. The amount of leave granted will depend on the relationship between the staff member and the person who died, and the responsibility for matters arising due to the death. 7. Unpaid Leave The Methodist Council have set out provisions, as outlined in this policy, in line with statutory requirements for paid annual leave; special leave; emergency leave; removal leave; and compassionate leave. When exploring the requirements for unpaid leave, the legal requirements and considerations need the employee and employer to consider whether the request is reasonable. Whether you are the employee requesting unpaid leave or the line manager authorising the unpaid leave, you need to consider the options available and the reason for the request. The Methodist 8 P a g e

9 Council wants to be fair to all employees and does not want to prevent employees from exercising their statutory right to unpaid leave. However, the statutory right to unpaid leave is the basic legal requirement. With provisions such as paid emergency, special, compassionate and removal leave, and schemes such as Flexi Time and Time Off in Lieu (TOIL), the employee requesting unpaid leave and the line manager considering the request, both need to assess whether the request is reasonable. The following should be taken into account: How many days unpaid leave is being requested What is the nature of the request? How many days in this rolling year have been requested and granted as unpaid leave. Line managers need to remain sensitive to the request for unpaid leave Employees need to be reasonable in the request. Development and Personnel can also be contacted for advice. If the leave is in relation to parental leave please refer to the Parental policy and guidelines. 8. Study Leave Study leave must be pre agreed with your line manager and will be authorised at the discretion of managers. To maintain a fair and equal approach it will be considered only on the following basis: A maximum of 5 days per calendar year If the qualification/course is in relation to the employee s work or development managers should aim to support the study leave where appropriate. Even if the Council is not funding the study managers should review whether or not they can authorise 5 days study leave. A request must be made and authorised in writing, the request does not gain an automatic right to study leave. Taking time off and making commitments without authorisation will be considered as unauthorised absence and managed under the disciplinary procedure. 9. Fair use of policy Failure to comply with the procedures as outlined, could lead to the absence being considered as unauthorised and therefore potentially a disciplinary matter. Any employee found to be abusing provisions could be subject to disciplinary action under the Methodist Council s Disciplinary Policy. If the member of staff feels that their request for leave, made under any category included in this policy has not been dealt with fairly, they should consult with the line manager to seek further information with a view to resolving the matter informally. If a satisfactory solution is not achieved informally, the staff member can submit a grievance using the Methodist Council s Grievance Policy. 9 P a g e