UCL Annual Leave Policy

This policy sets out the annual leave entitlement, including bank holidays and UCL closure days.

Contents

1. Annual leave year
2. Annual leave entitlement 
3. Bank holidays and closure days
4. Carrying leave forward
5. Calculating annual leave on termination of employment
6. Short-term sickness and annual leave
7. Long-term sickness and annual leave
8. Sickness whilst on annual leave
9. Parental leave and annual leave
10. Career break and other unpaid leave
11. Procedure for booking annual leave
12. MyHR annual leave calculation for part-time staff
13. Example 1

Annual leave year

1) The annual leave year runs from 1 October until 30 September.

Annual leave entitlement

2) Full-time staff are entitled to 27 days (197.10 hours) annual leave, pro-rated for part-time staff.

3) The proportion of annual leave to be granted for service of less than twelve months during an employee's first and last leave years is 1/12th of 27 days for each completed calendar month. If an employee starts or leaves part way through a month, they will receive a proportion of the annual leave entitlement for that month.

4) Fractions of half a day or less will be treated as half a day's annual leave and fractions of more than half a day will be treated as one day's annual leave.

5) Annual leave does not accrue during periods of temporary cessation of employment (e.g. between continuous seasonal contracts or career breaks).

6) Some staff may have a different annual leave entitlement, for example, if they chose to retain existing terms and conditions when the Pay Framework was implemented in 2006, or if they have joined UCL as a result of TUPE. Details are available from the Human Resources Division.

Bank holidays and closure days

7) Full-time staff are also entitled to UK Bank Holidays (including public holidays) (eight days i.e. New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day) and UCL Closure Days (six days), which are specified in UCL Term Dates. Leave will be calculated pro-rata for part-time staff. Staff who work weekends may be required to take annual leave during University closure periods.

Carrying leave forward

8) Wherever possible, staff should take their accrued annual leave prior to taking another type of planned leave (that will last more than 1 month).

9) No payment will be made in lieu of leave not taken, except in respect of the year of termination of employment.

10) Up to 5 days (36.5 hours pro-rata) untaken annual leave will automatically be carried forward into the next annual leave year.  Where an employee has been prevented from taking annual leave, additional annual leave may be carried forward.  The Head of Department must be consulted if a line manager intends to ask an employee not to take annual leave due to operational reasons (if the leave cannot be taken later in the same leave year).  Other examples where more than 5 days’ (pro-rata) leave may exceptionally be carried forward include:

• an employee on short-term sickness absence towards the end of the leave year (see para 13) and has had to cancel their annual leave;
• long term sickness (see para. 18);
• an employee has been unable able to take annual leave due to the timing of their maternity/adoption leave or their parental leave commencing earlier than expected;
• their booked annual leave is superseded by another contractual leave entitlement towards the end of the leave year.
• they have permission under the Special leave policy – time off to visit relatives abroad.

10) Where a member of staff is leaving UCL's employment, outstanding leave (pro-rated to the leaving date) should normally be taken before the termination date. However, where the line manager has agreed this is not possible, payment will be made in lieu.  The annual leave calculator will help identify the remaining annual leave entitlement. 

11) If staff have taken more annual leave than their entitlement, prior to leaving the University, they will be required to repay any overpayment to the University. This will normally be arranged through a deduction from their final salary.

12) The holiday payment upon leaving will be non-pensionable.

Short-term sickness (less than 4 weeks continuous absence) and annual leave

13) Employees will accrue contractual annual leave but will not accrue missed bank holidays or closure days. Bank holidays and closure days during the period of absence will be counted as sick days, for the purposes of pay and trigger point calculations. Where an employee is unable to take their leave due to sickness absence at the end of the Annual Leave year, exceptionally they will be able to carry forward more than 5 days (pro-rata, capped at 20 days).

Long-term sickness and annual leave

14) Long-term sickness absence is defined as sickness absence lasting 4 weeks or more.

15) Statutory holiday entitlement (20 days plus any bank holidays that fall in the period of absence) will accrue during paid and/or unpaid long-term certified sickness absence. Bank holidays and closure days during the period of absence will be counted as sick days, for the purposes of pay and trigger point calculations.

16) Contractual annual leave (beyond 20 days plus any bank holidays) and UCL closure days are not accrued during periods of long-term sickness absence.

17) An employee may take their annual leave at the same time as long-term sick leave and receive their normal rate of pay. This may be beneficial if an employee has exhausted their sick pay or it has dropped to half pay. The employee must provide reasonable notice for holiday requests to their manager to ensure pay and leave is processed correctly.

18) If an employee does not wish to take holiday entitlement during long-term sick leave, the employee is permitted to take this later in the leave year when they have returned to work. If they do not return to work during the leave year due to continued sickness, they are permitted to carry forward unused statutory annual leave (up-to 20 days) to the next leave year.

19) No payment will be made in lieu of statutory annual leave (up to 20 days) not taken unless it is part of a member of staffs’ final payment upon leaving.

Sickness whilst on annual leave

20) Staff who fall sick whilst on annual leave or just before they are due to take annual leave may take such time as sick leave and will be entitled to take the annual leave days lost due to sick leave at a later date. This is provided that the ill health is reported on the first day of illness, in accordance with the UCL Managing Sickness Absence Policy. The employee will only be entitled to statutory sick pay, if eligible, during the sickness absence unless they provide a private medical certificate at their own expense, or a UK fit note on the 8^th day of sickness. Please note that statutory sick pay is not normally paid for the first three days of sickness. 

Parental leave and annual leave

21) Statutory and contractual annual leave will continue to accrue during paid and unpaid Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave, Shared Parental Leave, Paternity/Partners Leave. Statutory leave only will accrue during unpaid Ordinary Parental Leave.

Career break and other unpaid leave

22) Annual leave does not accrue while on a career break or unpaid leave (which is not linked to a statutory entitlement i.e. sick leave, parental leave).

Procedure for booking annual leave

23) UCL employees book and record annual leave using MyHR Self Service or the Inside UCL app.

24) Staff will arrange when they take their annual leave in consultation with the Head of Department, or person deputised by the Head.

25) MyHR adjusts annual leave entitlement in accordance with each employee’s work pattern. This ensures that part-time staff are paid the pro-rata equivalent of 41 days leave each year unless they choose to carry forward annual leave to the next year.

MyHR annual leave calculation for part-time staff

26) The following example explains how annual leave entitlements are automatically calculated on MyHR Self Service. It is not necessary to manually adjust leave entitlements on MyHR Self Service to account for closure days/bank holidays if the FTE and work pattern have been entered correctly.

Example 1

For part-time staff who have a regular working pattern of less than 5 days per week, the number of pro-rata days for bank holidays and UCL closure days are added to their annual leave total and a day's leave deducted for any bank holidays and UCL closure days falling within their work pattern.

• eg: a regular working pattern of 3 days per week, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday each week (60%fte):
• 8 bank holiday + 6 UCL closure days = 14 days
• 60% of 14 days = 8.4 days 
• 27 days annual leave x 60% = 16.2 days 
• Total leave = 24.6 days multiplied by 7.3 is 179.58 hours (minus deductions below)

One day's leave is automatically deducted from this total for any bank holidays and UCL closure days which fall on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. The remaining number of days/hours can be taken as annual leave. The annual leave calculator can assist with this calculation. 

Annual leave pay calculation for staff who work irregular hours. 

HR Employment Policy Team
March 2023