Absence and leave

Annual leave

The University believes that it is important for all employees to balance their work and personal lives. All employees are entitled to a number of paid annual leave days, public holidays and closure days for the purpose of providing extended periods of time during which they can take a break from work, and then return to their jobs refreshed.

All employees are entitled to annual leave as set out in their contract of employment; most employees take their annual leave and some are paid for leave (eg: timesheet casual). The leave year runs from 1 October to 30 September each year. In the first and last years of service, and for those on fixed-term contracts which end during a leave year, leave entitlement will be calculated in proportion to completed service. If you have any questions regarding your leave entitlement, please look through the Annual leave guidance or contact HR

We have rolled out the ability for staff to book their annual leave via Employee Self Service from 01 October 2015 onwards.

If you are unable to book annual leave via employee self service please go to our online annual leave calculators on the absence page of Employee Self Service.

Planned leave

There may be other situations when circumstances outside work mean that an employee will request planned leave from work. Examples of some such situation that occur often within the University are:

Study leave, revision or exams

Jury service

Voluntary work and/or public duties

Medical or other personal appointments

Absence other types of leave bookings

Family leave

In order to improve the work-life balance of staff, the University has a number of family-friendly policies that aim to make working as easy as possible for those with, or about to have, family responsibilities. Situations when Family leave may occur include:

The birth or the adoption of a child

Spending time with a dependent child, or making arrangements for their welfare

Caring for a dependent or relative

Unplanned leave

Occasionally, employees will need to take leave from work at short notice as a result of unforeseen occurrences, domestic or personal emergencies, personal appointment or transport problems. In order to enable employees to deal with these situations the University makes flexible provision for employees to take the necessary time off work, on either a paid or unpaid basis.

Staff are now able to request unpaid leave for any length of time via Employee Self Service. Unpaid leave will be confirmed in an email once it has been authorised by your Reporting Manager. If the unpaid leave period is for over 8 weeks, then no annual leave will be accrued and the annual leave scheme on your HR record will be suspended for this period and reinstated from the return date. You should also be aware that any periods of unpaid leave will affect your Pensions contributions. Where possible and in advance of taking a period of unpaid leave employees should contact the Pensions Office for further information.

Guidance note are available via 'Things to do now'.

Unauthorised absence

If an employee is absent without authorisation, in the first instance the line manager should attempt to contact the employee by telephone to find out why they are not in work and when they will be back.

If attempts to contact the employee are unsuccessful, the unauthorised absence should be reported to the relevant HR Partner/Adviser immediately. This is to ensure appropriate action can be taken in relation to the employee's pay that will be placed on hold until a satisfactory explanation for their absence is provided. For employees subject to immigration control, legal obligations within the Home Office rules will be followed.

If these pages do not provide you with the information you need, or you need advice about a complex situation, please contact the relevant HR Partner/Adviser .