We are living in the strangest of times and many businesses are grappling with the same questions and dilemmas at this time. As a result, we are going to send out more blogs than usual to address some of the recurring issues. What to do about employees’ holiday entitlement is a regular topic of concern.
Individuals are having to cancel their holiday and are considering whether to completely cancel or re-book for a later date in the year. The uncertainty about global travel restrictions that may remain in place for an extended period of time. The idea of using holiday to remain at home when movement is so restricted that you cannot go out and perhaps the general unease about going away even once restrictions are lifted, has the potential to cause a real bottleneck of accrued but untaken paid leave entitlement for many employees. The problem will intensify, if and when, individuals want to take their holiday in a very tight time period which is then going to affect a business.
The best way of dealing with holiday is to explain to individuals that arrangements for asking to take paid leave entitlement still apply; everyone must seek permission in the normal way for their own particular business, before arranging time out. The explanation for this is that, although the position is extremely difficult for those affected, we as employers will do whatever we can to grant holiday requests, but the long-term health of the business also has to be protected. Employers will have to ensure that a business can run effectively and therefore, not everyone will be able to take paid leave entitlement at the same time.
If there is sufficient planning and adherence to normal procedures, then managers will have the best possible chance of giving individuals what they want, but possibly not the first or the second chosen options of dates.
It is worth considering how one can alleviate the difficulty of not being able to grant all requests and we are advising all employers to consider leniency with carry-forward.
In view of the exceptional circumstances, we would advise employers to allow individuals to carry forward additional paid leave entitlement into the next holiday year as an exception, rather than to apply the usual ‘use it or lose it’ maxim. Once into the new year, managers should pay close attention to the leave entitlement of their staff and actively encourage its use as evenly spread through the year as possible to avoid big balances sitting unused for an extended time; otherwise you are simply storing up an ever-growing problem.
We’d be happy to help with any queries on this or other related matters to do with Covid19.
