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Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

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Employers and employees working smarter to manage holiday entitlement during the summer break – Stewart Gee, Head of Information and Guidance at Acas

Floating-in-the-sea

Stewart Gee heads the team producing written guidance for Acas on the web and in booklet format along with Acas’ training products. Stewart’s team have produced guidance for employers and employees on avoiding and dealing with issues of discrimination, and will shortly begin work on guidance in relation to issues associated with atypical working practices.

Stewart Gee
Stewart Gee

Workplace experts, Acas, have created a new free online guide on leave to help employers deal with holiday requests.

With the school summer holidays well underway, bosses may find they get a raft of holiday requests from parents, which can be hard to manage in a way that keeps staff happy whilst keeping their businesses productive.

Our new guide reminds employers of the various options and legal entitlements that are available, which can also help parents know what they are entitled to ask for.

We always encourage both employees and employers to plan ahead where they can and be ready to explore whatever flexibilities are available when it comes to busy hot spots like the summer holidays to help your staff enjoy a summertime break, without losing business.

Acas has produced a set of top tips for employers to help them balance both business and personal demands during the summer break. These include:

Know the score with leave entitlement

Most workers, whether part-time or full-time, are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave. Additional annual leave may be agreed as part of a worker’s terms and conditions of employment. If a worker does a five-day week, they are entitled to 28 days of leave. If they work a three-day week, the entitlement is 16.8 days of leave. This can include bank holidays, there is no statutory right to bank or public holidays.

Be fair and consistent

Although the summer holidays are a popular time off for parents so that they can spend extra time with the children, manage childcare, or enjoy a family holiday, remember it is important to always manage annual leave requests fairly with all staff.

Think about short term flexible working requests

You might want to discuss and negotiate a temporary change to working patterns during the summer holidays. This could mean adjusting working hours or the working pattern. A good balance between an employee’s work commitments and family responsibilities can help to reduce stress, absence and increase productivity.

The Summer holiday guidance is available on the Acas website. Acas also offer advice on longer term flexible working solutions. From flexi-time to compressed hours, there are multiple ways for those with childcare responsibilities to strike a better work-life balance. The full range of options available both for long term and shorter term arrangements is available from The right to request flexible working.

 

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