As a result of COVID and the furlough scheme, holiday and statutory annual leave have been affected. This means that workers are now able to carry over up to 1.6 weeks of leave into the following year if the employee was unable to take it due to COVID-19 related issues.
How to manage this
Carry it over
The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 have been amended by the Government to allow employees within a business to carry over four weeks of their untaken leave within the next two years.
With employees returning to work or coming back from furlough this amendment is particularly useful in allowing your organisation to get back to business.
However, it is important to monitor how employees are taking their holiday as they have a lot to take over the next couple of years.
Monitor
By monitoring how much holiday your employees are taking you can avoid the issue of them accumulating annual leave and using it all in one go at the end of the year. It is a good idea to manage this over the upcoming months as staff may be reluctant to use holiday due to COVID-19.
Also, staff still accrue holiday whilst on furlough at the same rate as those working. Employees can still take holiday whilst on furlough without it disrupting furlough leave.
Encourage
Whilst staff may be reluctant to take holiday in the current climate, it is important to remind them of the health benefits of taking time off.
Lockdown and COVID-19 has affected us in many different ways. Therefore it is vital to stress the importance of rest and recuperating. This may not apply to those on furlough who have had time off but for those employees that have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic, a few days off can boost mental health and wellbeing.
Stagger
To avoid your workforce taking holiday at similar times, consider asking your employees to take their holiday at certain times. This can help manage workload and can help prevent your organisation from being understaffed.
