Effective Management of Holiday Entitlement

Thu May 5th 2016

It doesn’t take long for outstanding holiday entitlement to accumulate. Many businesses are so busy they don’t want their staff to take leave and would prefer to let it build up. Even if a staff member wants to take leave, sometimes, in smaller businesses they feel they will be letting you down if they are away.

Employers need to be aware that if a person leaves the business for any reason their holidays must be paid out at the rate they are currently on, even if they accrued those holidays five years ago for example. It is usually in the employer’s interest to ensure all holiday entitlement is used in the year it becomes due as otherwise it can quickly become a large liability to your business.

For the employee’s health and wellbeing we recommend that they should take at least two consecutive weeks holiday each year as a minimum.

Holidays are an area that needs careful attention and a systematic approach.

We recommend you purchase a wall calendar and ask you staff to apply for the time off they would like for the remainder of the year. You then need to assess this in line with requests from other staff and the requirements of the business. Consultation is the key to managing this process successfully.

If you don’t currently have a “leave form” we can provide this.

Remember an employer only has to give 14 days’ notice to a staff member to take outstanding holidays, but of course this approach would only be used if a staff member was refusing to take holidays and they had accrued a significant amount of leave.

Please call us if you have any concerns about holiday entitlement and how it affects your business.