End of Year Leave Arrangements
- Comments so far

'Having the leave deadline at the end of the financial year places a massive strain on staff who are trying to clear the accounts with not enough people around to provide backup. Having been dropped in the deep end at end of year myself, I would welcome any other date considered.'

'On birthdays please it's easy and is fair!'

'DWP work their holiday arrangements around the birthday of individual staff. This system does seem to work very well for them and the staff seem to find it user-friendly.'

'When I worked for another authority they changed to the date of your birthday. This change was actioned in a year and went without a hitch. The carry over of leave was up to 5 days within three months unless you were saving up for something like a trip to Australia which needed a long holiday.'

'I think the leave year should start on your birthday month - it would be easy for management to organise and everyone knows when their birthday is. This would stop everybody wanting to use up leave at the same time'

'Not too much wrong with current system, but end of March is sometimes complicated by moveable Easter dates.
Why not calendar years? (In Education at least) some case for end August, as that is the month also that many people do take leave because of children's school hols. But that itself may change...
Too much carry forward makes it difficult for managers / teams to plan the year, which could make any problems worse.
How much of a problem is it, really? - I sympathise with a previous comment about there being more important things!... '

'Keep the holiday year as it stands but be allowed to carry over more days.'

'I am content to keep things as they are.'

'Chose a suitable month if March is not a good time.'

'The company my husband works for had the same problem with a rush to take outstanding leave in March meaning no staff!!! They switched to the system of leave year running from staff member's birthday and this has worked really well for them. As a manager I would welcome anything that improves our current system.'

'I don't have a problem with the current arrangements and would be happy for them to remain as they are. However, if changes are proposed I think the leave year should be the same for everyone. To use individual's birthdays or date of joining would only lead to increased confusion and would, I feel, be difficult to manage.'

'All that is needed is for managers actively to manage leave (so that staff are reminded of their need to take leave throughout the year) and to apply more flexibility to the carry forward arrangements. I worked in another authority where the leave year was altered to be based upon birthdays and it made no difference to the problems of carry forward, cover etc. because it was still not being managed.'

'The present arrangements work well for most staff. There are few occasions when staff are prevented from taking leave in peak periods. I do think that having a cut off date by which leave needs to be taken does assist managers. If the system were too flexible I can foresee staff accumulating leave and taking 4-6 weeks at one time which does present problems of cover by remaining colleagues.'

'Keep things as they are.'

'Why not simply increase the number of leave days that can be carried over to a more friendly 10 (or even 15 days)? This would surely cater for all but a very few staff and the normal criteria for amounts of leave allowable at any one time would ensure DCC is not inconvenienced by it.'

'I'd prefer to change rather than keep the status quo. My preference would be for the Annual Leave Year to start on one's birthday.
I think it reasonable that 4 days or less (only) should continue to be carried over but to be used up anytime within the following leave year.'

'Shortly before I left my previous authority a system was introduced whereby each individual's leave year started on the month of their birthday. It has now running for some time and it seems to work well. It certainly stops the rush to use up leave at the end of the financial year.'

'It would seem sensible to me to follow the calendar year i.e. leave year starts 1st Jan ends 31st Dec this would mean that people could use up excess leave over xmas.....'

'Employers often cannot cover annual leave and some staff find that they have more left than they would have preferred. Some staff seem to be able carry over more than the 4 days. Our annual leave is worked out in hours and days, this is a pain. A week carried over would be better, maybe half to be used by September, but there is the problem of those staff members saving leave for longer trips abroad, 3 weeks plus. Leave is not flexible enough, a months notice is too long. Good luck, this is a difficult one!'

'Suggest fixed times e.g. quarterly or stay as things are, otherwise becomes extremely complicated to administer.'

'Happy with things as they are. Never found it a problem over many years. Individual arrangements harder to monitor?
Think there are far more important things for UNISON to focus on - e.g. attacks on our conditions of service.'

'Why not, as most private companies now do, start the new leave year on January 1st rather than April 1st.'

'Date of joining would be probably sensible. It would also be useful to have clarified if you work part time what you carry over in hours, this can vary depending on your manager. some people carry over four others are told it is pro rata.'

'I am in favour of change. My preference would be leave running from Jan - Jan.'

'I would suggest ending the leave year on 31 August or 30th September with 4 days to be taken by end of February. This would mean if people had to take holiday or lose it then at least it would be in the summer and links well with school holidays i.e. summer and Feb half term. The schools would be grateful as it would encourage people to take holidays then and not take children out of school in term time. If employees want to deliberately avoid school holiday periods for price reasons this would not preclude that. The main thing to do is for everyone to plan ahead. It would be too messy to have different dates for everyone, however some departments who are busiest in the summer might find it difficult to be short staffed if everyone is needing to use up leave. My guess is these would not be the majority.'

'I am concerned about the semester's option where you suggest quarterly. If I understand the suggestion correctly, undue pressure may be put on staff to use a quarter of their leave by a certain date, this would disadvantage those who like to take a block of four or five weeks to Australia for example.'

'Keep things as they are but increase the number of days that can be carried over to 10.'

'Leave should run from 1/1/0000 to 31/12/0000.'

'Suggest Jan-Dec as at end of March many people are using up leave and at that time of the year most depts are busier so pressure is greater.'

'How about the leave year running from 1st September to August 31st thus if people end up having to use leave in the last month it would fall in August when many people are on holiday anyway and demands are less. Also for the member of staff they would have their new allocation of leave available for the year ahead. Many people plan their holiday in the autumn for the following year. The facility to carry forward 4 days should remain but should be taken by December 31st. '

'I know of at least one national company where the leave year is based on the individual employee's birthday and this has worked very well.'

'Leave it as is.'

'Provided that the administration would not be too complex running it from the staff member's birthday would seem best and would certainly smooth out any peaks in leave requests.'

'Joining date for new (and existing ?) employees. Could consider alternative such as birthday for existing.'

'End on 31st March each year.'

'End of year (December) would suit me.'

'Leave things as they are. This is all brought about by bad management of time. Managers should ensure adequate cover is available for any pinch points in the yearly calendar of events.'

'Personalise the leave year birthday to birthday.'

'Personally it doesn't matter to me when the leave year starts or finishes. I can understand how having one year end for everyone causes problems when getting people to make decisions relating to financial year end as lots of people are away.
If things are going to change I would also like to see the five extra days you get after 5 years given to you one day at a time for every year you work rather than a lump allocation in five years time. I would also like to be able to work over the Christmas period and take the extra day or so later in the year if I want rather than being forced to take holiday over that period.'

'On the date of joining Devon County Council or other employer is logical and stops those who join part way through a year losing out on entitlement because the current leave year starts in April.'

'I feel that the best solution would be to end the leave year on a particular date, eg December 31st. Ending it on a different day for each individual (eg by birthdate or employment date) will complicate management of annual leave. Arrangement by semesters or quarters could lead to similar, albeit more minor, rushes to use leave at the end of each of these periods, and there is a risk then in being tied to using your leave in smaller chunks; for instance ensuring you use a quarter of your entitlement every quarter, thus giving less flexibility to having, say, a three-week break at any one time. keeping things as they are does present a problem regarding year-end operations across the board - there is always a hiatus at the end of March. This would be alright if leave was managed well, and people looked far enough ahead, reconciling leave with work commitments, etc, and managers were more assertive in ensuring staff did not book leave at the same time where this was not practical, but these don't happen, and a move to an alternative date would provide a neater and easy solution.'

'Leave Year on Staff members individual birthday.'