Annual Leave Entitlement – Responses

Summary

The following responses were received:

	No of Responses
Response was in agreement with the proposal	19
Response was not in agreement with the proposal	11
Total	30

Note: Three of the responses received highlighted an error in the ‘No of Hours (FTE)’ under the proposed arrangement. This was incorrectly noted as 229.4 hours when it should have been 244.2 hours. This was corrected on the consultations website immediately and we do not believe this has therefore had any wider impact on the responses received.

Responses

In order to ensure openness, transparency and clarity the responses received have been summarised / grouped wherever possible. The response noted in the table below may therefore been paraphrased.

Response	Reply
In agreement I agree and support the new proposed entitlement.	Comment is appreciated and noted.
Rewarding long service It seems long term staff are being penalised and no loyalty given to staff who have shown commitment and dedication during their long term service.   There is no incentive to keep knowledgably, experienced long serving members of staff by removing these rewards. Due to the length of time it takes to accrue additional days it would be much appreciated to continue to receive these extra days as a token of loyalty and long term service.	The length of time taken to accrue additional leave under the current arrangement can give rise to an age discrimination claim. The introduction of a shorter period to receive full entitlement mitigates this risk.
There should be some form of encouragement/reward for serving the Council for fifteen, twenty, twenty-five/thirty years. There could be a badge, certificate, etc. something bigger for a significant anniversary year. There is no need for this to be this expensive, but should be something special to display.	A policy of awarding gifts for long service over five years can give rise to an age discrimination claim. Further consideration, however, will be given to identifying compliant ways of recognising long service.
School staff additional hours As a HLTA who has been working on the front line throughout the covid-19 pandemic I am very disappointed that yet again we are as school staff losing out. I work the full time hours that we are permitted in the school which is 32.5 hours. I still take work home to mark and assess, so the my hours are in fact closer to the 39hours classed as full time. But we continually lose out at pro-rata. It is about time that our additional hours of marking and preparing are taken in to consideration. As the pay scale grade is way off the actual pay we receive after pro-rata has been deducted.	The proposal will apply equally to term time-only, part-time, full-year or full time staff.   Issues regarding additional hours undertaken in a role do not form part of this consultation and should be raised with your line manager or headteacher.
Company Holidays The biggest problem with the annual leave entitlement is the fact that the council uses some of the staff’s entitlements compulsorily but says that they are part of the rights.  In fact, there are only 23 days with the staff, not 26; on Ceri, it is called ‘Company holiday’ NOT ‘Annual leave’, although it uses the member of staff’s entitlement.  If the council is concerned about being unfair, it should not deduct the 29-31 December from staff annual leave entitlements.	The Council is allowed to insist that employees take their annual leave days on fixed days during the leave year and that these form part of the employee’s leave entitlement.
Incorrect calculation Calculation of term time workers annual leave entitlement and hourly rate of pay is incorrect and needs amending.	The calculation will be reviewed.

Decision

Implement proposal with effect from 1 April 2021.