Covering Annual Leave

Unclefoobar · 23 September 2018 at 8:13PM

I work as part of a small team. Within that team, there are three employees (including me) who can do a specific role. No one else within the team is authorised to carry out that role (it requires extensive local training) and calling in external agency workers is not an option.

We work a rosta system and in addition we receive annual leave. Traditionally we have covered each others annual leave during our off duty / off rosta time.

Due to another ongoing dispute, the question of covering others annual leave on our off time has been raised. My employer states this is perfectly normal.

When pushed, my employer has threatened to amend our contracts to say we must cover each others annual leave.

Whilst I agree that employees can be expected to cover others annual leave, that always seems to be while still in their own work time, not in scheduled time off.

I am part of a union but they are not local to me so it would be telephone or email for assistance.

I have searched on the internet for any help or other references but I can't find any, so any ideas? Can an employee be forced contractually to give up their time off to cover others annual leave?

jackieblack · 23 September 2018 at 8:19PM

Just to clarify, are you saying that the two who are not on holiday both have to work extra hours to cover the missing third person who is taking annual leave?

Unclefoobar · 23 September 2018 at 8:24PM

jackieblack wrote: »

Just to clarify, are you saying that the two who are not on holiday have to work extra hours to cover the missing third person who is taking annual leave?

There must always be two people either on duty or available, so if one of the on duty employees books annual leave then the off duty employee must be available to cover.

Its not a unique situation but it is very unusual and far from common.

Rosemary7391 · 23 September 2018 at 8:29PM

Unclefoobar wrote: »

There must always be two people either on duty or available, so if one of the on duty employees books annual leave then the off duty employee must be available to cover.

Its not a unique situation but it is very unusual and far from common.

24/7 or Mon-Fri 9-5 or...? On site or on call?

Saying only one can be on annual leave at a time is fine. Being on call is annoying but probably okay. If you've got to work crazy hours when someone is on holiday I'd be miffed.

If I were the employer I'd also be wondering how long it would take to replace someone and how sustainable this is... if someone went on long term sick or got run over by a bus what would happen?

arielsmelody · 23 September 2018 at 8:44PM

So if someone books two weeks annual leave, during those two weeks both of the other employees must be working (whether actually on duty or on call) for all the hours when your job is worked. You don't say how many hours in a day/week that is? I wonder if it is covered by the working time legislation?

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/legal/being-on-call-working-time

Unclefoobar · 23 September 2018 at 8:52PM

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

24/7 or Mon-Fri 9-5 or...? On site or on call?

Saying only one can be on annual leave at a time is fine. Being on call is annoying but probably okay. If you've got to work crazy hours when someone is on holiday I'd be miffed.

If I were the employer I'd also be wondering how long it would take to replace someone and how sustainable this is... if someone went on long term sick or got run over by a bus what would happen?

24/7

On call, not onsite but must attend work (so no alcohol) if required and must remain within a certain distance of the workplace when on call (whether on duty or covering annual leave)

Unclefoobar · 23 September 2018 at 8:56PM

arielsmelody wrote: »

So if someone books two weeks annual leave, during those two weeks both of the other employees must be working (whether actually on duty or on call) for all the hours when your job is worked. You don't say how many hours in a day/week that is? I wonder if it is covered by the working time legislation?

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/legal/being-on-call-working-time

Yes, in answer to your point. The hours can be irregular depending on demand but are on a 24 hour basis.

I am covered by the WTR.

sangie595 · 23 September 2018 at 9:15PM

Bearing in mind that there's actually no really useful information here.... Can the employer change your contact to require cover? Yes they can. How far they can or will go with that is something we can't guess at because we don't have a clue what the employer is, what the job is, the working terms of the business requirements.

This appears to have come about because of other disputes. So some ongoing issues.

So why are you paying union fees to get advice from a bunch of strangers on the internet who don't know the circumstances? And what union "isn't local"? Most of us are local to every part of the UK, and a phone call or email is the obvious thing you should do.

pmduk · 23 September 2018 at 9:21PM

So what does the employer expect to happen if someone is on holiday and one of the two remaining staff hs a medical emergency causing them to miss work? Sounds very poor planning to me.

tacpot12 · 23 September 2018 at 11:00PM

The employer can, and probably should, change your contracts to require you to cover the planned absence of a member of your roster. They need to be clear about this when hiring new staff into the team, and if the contract is currently unclear, now would be the time to clear it up.

The employer is acting reasonably, if they refuse to allow you to take time off when your role cannot be covered by the other members of the team, providing they operate fairly. It would not be fair if A always wants time off in school holidays, and the employer insists that B always covers their leave at those times, but will not insist that A covers B's leave when B wants to take annual leave during school holiday in order to attend their sister's wedding.

What is not normal or reasonable is for cover to be unpaid. However, the employers view will be that they pay you for this. I think you have a legitimate grievance if there are others in the team who are paid the same, but do not have work unpaid when providing cover , or who do not have to provide cover at all. I would expect that you are paid some form of allowance to cover the extra hours you have to remain available to your employer. This won't be at your normal rate of pay as you won't be called into work on many occasions, but having to remain in the area is a significant bind, and I would expect you to receive at least 30% of your normal rate of pay when on all.

Whether or not it is a good idea to mix this issue in with the other issue you are having, I can't say.

TELLIT01 · 24 September 2018 at 8:24AM

Expecting both remaining staff to be available 24/7 seems excessive to me and unneccessary. The employer is expecting staff to put their own lives totally on hold for a minimum of 10 weeks each year, outside the weeks they would be on-call anyway.
Is there an on-call payment and if so how much? At one place I worked they decided out of the blue that tech support staff were expected to respond overnight if required. No payment of any kind because as far as management were concerned all staff should expect some disruption to normal life! This was in the days before mobile phones were everywhere but it was still amazing how many people only had a phone in their living room and never heard the calls during the night! :-) Eventually the company had to introduce a formal rota, provide a mobile and pay staff.

Covering Annual Leave

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