Xmas Grant

[Downsizer]

As this is a rumour site, time for the duty rumour doing the rounds here....

3-4 week xmas grant as a cost saving. Any flesh on the bones....?

 

[ninjarabbi]

I'd heard that 2020 was going to be a year off for all Service personnel.............you heard it here first!

 

[Dan_Brown]

As this is a rumour site, time for the duty rumour doing the rounds here....

3-4 week xmas grant as a cost saving. Any flesh on the bones....?

Briefed at my Unit potentially extra week to be taken in Jan (not before) and using ILA - so i'll be back at work as normal.

Cost saving, but expecting us to use our ILA

 

[Downsizer]

I anticipate people will be "encouraged" to take leave. But it won't be an extension to the grant as such....

 

[muttywhitedog]

How does it sit legally in respect to being told when to take your leave? I know factories will have weeks where they shut down for maintenance etc, teachers have to have the school holidays and whilst I was on the Harrier Force, we had Block Leave, although a skeleton staff did work to ensure everything was ready to go on the first day back.

Perhaps Busby can advise further on the legal implications, but my thought would be that if you are offered the chance to use some of your leave on an extended Xmas break, decline and then struggle to get it in during Feb & March, the RAF could well refuse your request to carry forward the leave as you had been offered a chance to take it. One of our OC's on the HF took this approach when considering carry forward requests and I do remember a couple of technicians having their request refused because they had refused to take the block leave.

 

[Downsizer]

I'm pretty sure under UK employment law it is entirely legal for your employer to tell you when you are taking leave.

 

[busby1971]

It’s not illegal as long as the process is fair, reasonable and non discriminatory, watch out for kids, carers and religious commitments, Normal practice would be minimum notice period equal to length of forced holiday to be taken, and deal with any issues that present.

You also don’t have the legal right to take holiday when you want, although if a boss starts to reject requests too often people will just call in sick, especially if youve got day one full sick pay. Managers could just keep rejecting holiday so that it gets lost at year end if thats what your contract says, but that would be a no brainer road to nowhere if it went to ET.

Obviously the lower down the ethics tree your employer sits the more likely they are to dump on you.

I don’t really do ER very much these days, limited to SAs and complicated stuff, but I don’t think things would have changed too much since I last updated a Holiday policy.

 

[Rigga]

LOL! I’m suffering a three month sabbatical due to my company folding in September. I’m placed on Garden leave for my three months Notice Period, so I get to do the Induction at my new company just before their Xmas break!

 

[OneTimeSooty]

Are they still doing the Christmas bonus for those in their first year of service? Always thought it was nice of the RAF to give the newbies a little extra cash for their first Christmas!

 

[Cooheed]

The forces get 30 days annual leave. I get 20, which is standard for civvy companies. Some folks need to dry their eyes......

 

[busby1971]

20 days is the legal minimum, I try to avoid companies that work to legal minimums.

25 is a fair rate, companies with higher EBITDA and the public sector can get closer to 30, although these tend to be accumulated through service, which is starting to disappear as it’s just a bit discriminatory and kids like to complain these days.

 

[muttywhitedog]

I get flexi leave. This year I have taken 27 days flex, on top of my annual leave. I've done it by working >40hrs almost every week I'm in. But its not healthy to do that continuously, and I feel knackered when it comes to taking a day off. Next year I am going to be more disciplined about keeping closer to my core hours and have also asked to reduce my hours to 30 per week instead of 37. I've already started handing back the responsibility for some of my "additional" roles, all of which were taken on voluntarily so that those who actually want to get promoted can start putting the hours in instead of someone who is doing it for pin money.

 

[justintime129]

20 days is the legal minimum, I try to avoid companies that work to legal minimums.

25 is a fair rate, companies with higher EBITDA and the public sector can get closer to 30, although these tend to be accumulated through service, which is starting to disappear as it’s just a bit discriminatory and kids like to complain these days.

In the NHS I got 33 days plus 8 BH. Mine was converted to hours because I worked 12 hr days