THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT PART OF YOUR CONTRACT. CHANGES TO HOLIDAY PAY ARRANGEMENTS Frequently Asked Questions

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1 %DOCUM ENT% THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT PART OF YOUR CONTRACT CHANGES TO HOLIDAY PAY ARRANGEMENTS Frequently Asked Questions 1. How are arrangements changing in relation to holiday pay? Prior to January when you were paid for an assignment, NHS Professionals made an additional payment on top of the hourly rate as payment for the holiday entitlement that you had accrued during that assignment. This was known as rolled up holiday pay. From 1 January 2011, NHS Professionals will no longer pay rolled up holiday pay. Instead, you will be able to book holiday and be paid for this. 2. Why are my holiday pay arrangements changing? The Working Time Regulations 1998 require that flexible workers should book holiday and be paid for this once they have taken it. Although the old system ensured that flexible workers received payment in respect of holiday entitlements, it did not encourage flexible workers to take time away from the workplace. The new system will pay flexible workers to take time away from the workplace and so will ensure, as far as NHS Professionals is able to do so, that the flexible workers take proper rest periods as holiday. 3. How much paid holiday will I be entitled to? You will be entitled to up to 28 days holiday per year, paid on a pro-rata basis to time worked This includes bank holidays. 4. How much will I be paid? You will be entitled to be paid in respect of up to 28 days holiday. The amount you will receive will be based on your average pay rate in the period it was accrued. 5. How do I claim/request paid holiday? You will need to follow the following procedure: 1. The annual leave form is available on the NHS Professionals website. 2. Complete the form and submit to NHS Professionals not less than 2 weeks before your requested leave. 3. The Annual Leave request will then be processed. We will usually defer any holiday which has not been accrued (so flexible workers will be able to take any holiday they like but we will only pay in respect of holiday that has accrued). 4. The shift/s will be authorised following the annual leave date, you will then have these hours available for release. 5. Payment will occur through standard payroll timeframes and the detail appears on the standard payslip. 6. How will I be paid? You will be paid through payroll in the normal way. Your holiday pay will be identified on your pay slip as an annual leave shift. However, because the holiday shift relates to paid time off and not time spent on an assignment, you will not be treated as an employee during time spent on paid holiday and the provisions set out in section 1 of your Flexible Working Registration Document will apply. Last updated 08/03/2011 Page 1 of 5

2 7. Can I decide exactly when I take my paid holiday? You may decide when to request paid holiday, subject to the requirements of the NHS Professionals holiday booking arrangements. In particular, NHS Professionals will not pay some or all of the holiday requested where the flexible worker has not yet accrued entitlement to that paid holiday. NHS Professionals reserves the right to require flexible workers to take paid holiday on specific dates where it considers this to be necessary. 8. Can I carry over any of my holiday from one year to the next? It is important that a flexible worker takes time away from work and it is a requirement of the Working Time Regulations 1988 that flexible workers book holiday and get paid once they have taken it. As a result, paid holiday should be taken in the holiday year in which it accrues. However, NHS Professionals will allow you to carry over up to five days paid holiday from the end of one holiday year into the next holiday year. We will automatically carry over up to 5 days of annual leave so you do not lose this entitlement (any entitlement over and above this will be lost). This carried over annual leave will need to be booked and taken by 31 March of the following leave year. 9. What happens if I do not request any holiday? You must make a request using the NHS Professionals holiday request procedure in order to take paid holiday. If you do not make a request, you will lose your entitlement to paid holiday at the end of the holiday year. We will allow carry over of up to 5 days annual leave to the next annual leave year. (See 7 above). In order to make it easier for you, if you have an online NHSP account you will see an automated message when you log on to book holiday. This will show you how much leave you have accrued and what rate of pay you will receive if you book and take your holiday. 10. Do I have to take a minimum period of annual leave? Yes paid annual leave will usually only be permitted in annual leave shifts of 7.5 hours. The exception to this will be in respect of carried over annual leave. This may be taken off in a chunk of time less than a 7.5 hour annual leave shift or combined with accrued annual leave from the current leave year to make up a 7.5 hour annual leave shift. 11. What happens if my flexible worker registration ends? If your registration is terminated either by NHS Professionals or by you, any outstanding annual leave entitlement would be paid on exit. 12. What is my holiday entitlement for this year? In addition to the hourly rate that you receive when you work a shift for NHS Professionals you currently receive an additional payment for holiday pay. This is known as rolled-up holiday pay and means that you have been paid automatically for your annual leave, whether or not you take a break from work. The changes to claiming holiday pay began for shifts processed after 1 January So, for shifts that you released prior to 29 December 2010 you will still receive an element for holidays within your hourly rate and you do not need to claim annual leave. The annual leave year will normally run from 1 January to 31 December and it is for shifts released after 28 December 2010 that you will need to submit a claim form to take annual leave. Last updated 08/03/2011 Page 2 of 5

3 13. Where can I find the claim form to book my holidays? The electronic claim form to book your holidays has been posted on the NHS Professionals website. 14. How is my holiday entitlement worked out? For full-time work, based on 37.5 hours per week, you will be entitled to up to 28 days holiday per year, paid on a pro-rata basis to time worked. This includes bank holidays. The amount that you will receive will be based on your average pay rate in the period during which it was accrued. 15. What is the Annual Leave year? The annual leave year will run from 1 January to 31 December. As we transition from one system to another, any shift that is not released for payment before the 29 December 2010 will accrue hours for the purposes of annual leave once it is released. These accrued hours will be additional to the 2011 entitlement of 28 days. 16. Why will I have less take home pay from January 2011? We have written to you on several occasions explaining about the changes to how your holidays will be paid from January This is the result of a legal requirement for us to change the way that holiday payments are made. You will notice a slight reduction in your take-home pay from January However, you will be building up your entitlement to paid holidays and this means that you can claim, and be paid for, your annual leave throughout the year. Your actual pay rate has not changed it is only the element for annual leave that will be paid separately and will no longer be shown on your payslip as part of your hourly pay. 17. How soon can I book annual leave? You will start to accrue annual leave for all shifts released after 28 December You will then be able to start to book holidays as soon as you have built up sufficient hours (i.e. when you have at least 7.5 hours available). In order to make it easier for you, if you have an online NHSP account you will see an automated message when you log on to book holiday. This will show you how much leave you have accrued and what rate of pay you will receive if you book and take your holiday. If you do not have an online NHSP account you will be sent a quarterly statement which shows the amount of leave that you have accrued and the rate at which it would be paid. Last updated 08/03/2011 Page 3 of 5

4 If you do not have enough time accrued for the holiday the request will not be processed. You will be able to make another request once you have built up sufficient leave entitlement. 18. I work more than 37.5 hours a week can I claim more than 28 days leave in a year? Annual leave taken and the number of shift hours accrued will be capped each week in line with a 28 day yearly entitlement. Throughout the NHS, full-time hours are considered to be based on a 37.5 hour working week; for the purposes of your annual leave accrual we use this standard. Annual Leave bookings will also be in line with all other Working Time Regulations. 19. I do not want to take any leave but if I book and take my holiday pay can I still work a shift? You cannot work a shift and have Annual Leave at the same time. Annual Leave bookings will be in line with all other Working Time Regulations. 20. Will the additional Bank Holiday this year affect my leave entitlement? The advice we have received is that we do not need to change our plans in respect of Flexible Worker annual leave entitlement as a result of the additional Bank Holiday in 2011 for the Royal wedding. This is because currently there are no plans to change the Working Time Regulations to provide for this additional day. 21. If I do not claim my holiday pay, what happens to the amount that has been accrued? You will have every opportunity to claim your holidays and you will know exactly how many days you are due and the rate at which it will be paid. You will have the full year in which to take your accrued entitlement. Additionally, we will automatically carry over up to 5 days into the following year, when you will have another twelve weeks in which to take any holiday that is owing to you. If you do not do this, you will lose that entitlement. Any monies accrued and not claimed within the agreed timeframe will be used to offset the costs of the administration of the holiday pay system. 22. What is the accrual rate for annual leave hours? The rate of accrual will not change. This will remain at 12.07% of your hours this percentage is calculated to enable you to accrue 5.6 weeks (28 days) annual leave in 46.4 weeks, based on a full time week of 37.5 hours. Anything less than full time weekly work will still accrue leave at 12.07% of hours worked, so that your leave entitlement will be the correct proportion of the hours that you actually work. Last updated 08/03/2011 Page 4 of 5

5 23. Why was the claim form not available from 1 January 2011? As you only start to build up your annual leave entitlement from 1 January 2011 you generally will not have enough accrued to claim holidays immediately and payment for annual leave will of course depend on how much you have worked. The claim form was available for you to complete from 14 th January. If you have any questions about this process please them to holidaypay@nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk, this mailbox will be available until 30 th April How do I cancel booked holiday? To cancel any holiday that has been booked you will need to cancel it in the same way you would cancel a normal shift. 25. How long does it take to have cancelled holiday hours re-released back to me? Cancelled holiday can take up to two weeks to be released back to you and appear on the booking system. 26. Why is my holiday entitlement displaying incorrectly? Your holiday entitlement will be added to your accrual. It is normally one week in arrears in line with the submission and payment of timesheets. Please ensure that you submit your timesheets on a weekly basis in accordance with the Flexible Workers Registration Document. Please note that the points above are non-binding and for guidance only. Full terms and conditions in relation to annual leave entitlement can be found in your Registration Document. Last updated 08/03/2011 Page 5 of 5