If anyone works in the nhs please can you shed any light on this holiday allowance?

[nalzer]

I want to know if my ex (Dd’s) dad is telling me the truth.

He says if he doesn’t use his holiday allowance then he doesn’t get to roll it over or get paid for it. Surely you get paid for holiday if you don’t take it?? That’s what’s always happened in my work but I work in the private sector in finance.

He is basically saying he hasn’t been able to take the leave and now will lose it and not be paid for it either. Is this right? He is a fellow if that makes a difference.

My trust allows you to buy or sell a week. We have on occasion been allowed to carry over a few days to be used in the first month of the new year but only really if you had asked for leave and been denied. You can sell a week and then buy it back in the next year so essentially carry it over.

It varies from Trust to Trust. We can't carry over any annual leave, it's basically use it or lose it. In fact, we are even told how much leave we have to take each quarter.

Different trusts have different rules

During Covid, people were so overworked, they weren't able to take all their annual leave and were allowed to roll or get paid a certain amount - I worked for a trust that allowed up to 10 days, but it wasn't automatic and you only had a brief window to apply for this

However, the general rule is no

No rollovers and no pay in lieu - this is supposed to encourage a 'healthy' work/life balance and the trusts doesn't have the unions on their backs over working time directives

I now work for a trust that will only allow up to 5 days rollover and that's only after applying for and being granted a rollover - it's not automatic and it can't keep happening from year to year

Every time that someone has leave from the previous year added onto their current year's allowance, they are putting an unfair burden on the rest of the team that has to cover their workload when their off

I carried over two days (counted as 15 hours) and it's caused no end of paper work

It would depend on the policy but yes essentially. If you haven’t bothered to book any it’s your own fault and you’re breaching the policy. If you’ve repeatedly tried to book and repeatedly been refused across lots of different dates then mangers can approve a bit more to roll over but it’s rare that you would get refused all dates. Sometimes a manager will approve auto-assigning of leave if you haven’t booked any after being asked to and your rota will be adjusted to show you on leave and it’s tough if it’s not dates that work for you.
Anything else not booked or rolled over will be lost.

Yes he's being honest. He'll lose it and not be paid for it. They've also got very strict on carrying days to next year in my trust - they almost declined mine after Mat Leave as I'd built alot up!

Yes, that is often the case. It was certainly true at my last place of employment (an independent school). If an employee hadn't taken all their paid leave by the end of the leave year, they forfeited the remaining leave and then just started the next leave year with their usual annual allowance.
Surplus leave was not carried over by default. Requests for carry-forward were considered on a case by case basis, and if granted were limited to 5 days.

They’d be delighted if he lost his leave, he’d have effectively worked for free.

Yep he's correct and fwiw that was the same when I worked in private sector too. Rolled over xx days and lose the rest no payout

I work in the NHS. Our policy is use it or lose it. None carried over unless for exceptional circumstances, any requests to do so have to be signed off by the whole of the senior leadership team. We don't get it paid out if we don't use days, they're just gone.

I have never worked anywhere that pays you not to use your annual leave. Is that even legal?

Why's he not taken any leave?

Some hospitals allow you to buy and sell holiday but it’s not the norm. I’m allowed to carry 5 days over max but at manager’s discretion. But, generally you either use it or lose it.

NHS - not allowed to carry any over unless extenuating circumstances.

It's at your Trust's discretion

And if we don't use them we definitely don't get paid. We lose them.

He’s totally nuts not to take holiday. No one is that important.

This was how it worked in the NHS organisations I worked for. You can carry over 5, but beyond that you lose any you haven't used. Individualcircumstances are taken into account at manager's discretion, if for some reason you couldn't take your leave (e.g. due to being ill or on mat leave).

This seems a strange time of year to be having this conversation... The NHS leave year runs April to April. So he just needs to take all of this year's leave by next April.

It’s a no in my trust not even 1 hour and you don’t get paid either which is a joke! Sometimes it’s hard to squeeze the time in around other people which is not our fault or fair.

I work in the nhs and it’s managers descretion if you can roll over 5 days. Otherwise you lose it and don’t get it paid either. Very annoying. I learnt the hard way. All my leave is now booked in this year till April 😂

Each Trust is different, mine is use or lose it. Used to be able to carry 5 days over but that changed this financial year.

I agree. I'm always horrified when people tell me (often sounding bizarrely proud of it!) that they don't use their annual leave. It's the equivalent of handing back some of your salary to your employer.

They can where you have more holiday allowance than statutory minimum, my work sometimes allows it us to cash in holidays when we really busy but they won’t pay them if people have just got to end of year and not taken them

This

Same. It seems like a way of encouraging people not to take their leave!

I work for the NHS on AfC and we are only allowed to carry 1 week over. We are expected to put requests for AL in equally throughout the year (with some limitations on key weeks). I’m not sure what the medics situation is but legally the organisation has to allow time for AL even if that means your AL is allocated and not specifically when you want it. What has his union said on the matter?