by Aoife Meagher, Content Specialist, SD Worx
Managing annual leave at Christmas as an employer– it’s the item on your list that definitely needs to be checked twice. No matter the size of your team, ensuring a fair and equitable split of leave is essential to the smooth running of your department, and making sure that your employees feel that they’ve been treated fairly.
What Days Off Do We Get at Christmas?
There are three public holidays falling during the Christmas period, namely Christmas Day, St. Stephen’s Day and New Year’s Day. Christmas Eve is not a public holiday and is a normal working day. Certain employers may choose to allow employees to leave early, but there is no obligation for businesses to provide leave.
Each year, these public holidays fall on the same date but may fall on a different day. While the public holiday remains on the same date, even if it falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the benefit may not fall to the next working day. In the same way that time off can be affected, so too can payroll timing over Christmas become something that might need a bit of extra thought.
Legal Obligations
What are the legal entitlements for your employees? While the issue is certain to be one which will need discussion and consideration, the legal requirements for leave must form the basis for how you explore leave.
Full Time Employees:
Full time workers are entitled to the benefit of the public holiday no matter how long they are employed in their role.
Part Time Employees:
Part time workers are also entitled to the full benefit of the public holiday if they have worked a total of 40 hours in the 5 weeks prior to a public holiday.
Employees on lay-off:
Employees on temporary lay-off are entitled to the benefit of the public holiday provided it falls within the first thirteen weeks of lay-off.
Public holiday benefit
If you qualify for public holiday benefit, you are entitled to one of the following:
- A paid day off on the public holiday
- An additional day of annual leave
- An additional day’s pay
- A paid day off within a month of the public holiday
You can ask your employer at least 21 days before a public holiday, which of the alternatives will apply. If your employer does not respond at least 14 days before the public holiday, you are entitled to take the actual public holiday as a paid day off.
Does Every Employer Give Christmas Off?
Unfortunately, not all businesses are able to offer Christmas holidays. Healthcare workers, emergency service personnel, nursing home staff, employees working with the provision of energy, workers dealing with animals, transport, and many more will all continue to work during the Christmas period.
If it’s not possible to provide time off, considering gifts for employees or other non-monetary benefits might be a good way to ensure your workforce remain satisfied.
How to Organise Christmas Leave as an Employer
It can be an emotional subject, but by considering the points below, you can take some of the heat off.
1. Clear Leave Policies
Every business will have their own annual leave policies. The key is to make sure that every employee understands the policy and has full access to it to make sure they understand how leave is accrued, how to request it, and how it will be approved.
2. First Come, First Served
The fairest way of distributing annual leave is on a first come, first served process. Giving people who request early priority would seem to work well in terms of fairness, but if annual leave around Christmas is something incredible contentious on your team, then it would seem that rewarding rapidity might sew discontent. Setting a date from which it is possible to request leave might be a good plan.
Relying on a first come, first served system can help with scheduling conflicts and avoid a last-minute flurry of requests at the eleventh hour.
3. Consider Business Needs
It’s worth taking a look at your business and each team and asking a few questions. If normally performed in-office, could these roles move to home during the Christmas period for more comfort? Does a member of each team need to be working over Christmas? Is the time of year quiet enough that one staff member can adequately manage all the systems, or is more of a team required? Communicate busy periods (e.g., end of financial year) well in advance so employees understand why leave may be restricted during certain times.
4. Rotate Popular Holiday Periods
The most coveted periods days on the calendar could easily be fought for within a team. Days like Christmas Eve, Twixtmas (a colloquial term for the period between St. Stephen’s Day and Jan 2nd) and New Years Even often feature as particularly contentious days. In certain cases, it might be best to allow employees to apply for these days and lay out their requests to try and ensure that each employee gets at least one of these coveted days off, if requested. This should be recorded so that next year, different allocations can be administered.
5. Use Technology for Transparency
Use a leave management system that allows employees to see who has already booked time off. This increases transparency and helps employees choose dates that do not conflict with colleagues. This also means that employees can have a bird’s eye view of how the team will be impacted during festive periods and can see that no favouritism has been shown throughout the period.
6. Encourage Equal Use of Leave
Monitor the usage of annual leave throughout the year to ensure employees are taking the time off they’re entitled to, and that leave isn’t being hoarded. Certain businesses have policies in place which specify a certain number of annual leave days may need to be taken at certain increments throughout the year.
It’s not possible to please everyone with something as emotional as Christmas leave – it’s a time which comes with heightened obligation, stresses, and can be deeply emotional time of year for some people. Employees with children or other obligations might feel hard done by if they don’t get the leave they are hoping or planning on, but keeping an open dialogue and being willing to compromise is key to keeping people feeling listened to and appreciated.
