Avoid tripping up over holiday leave

Henry Budd

If you are thinking about booking that last-minute trip over the Christmas holiday period, it is worthwhile checking in with your boss to make sure you can get the time off.

Link Recruitment general manager Andrew Williams says employees sometimes put the cart before the horse when it comes to taking their annual leave.

“People who book a holiday and then assume they will get leave approved are the ones who are courting trouble,” Williams says.

“It’s best if you get the leave approved first before you confirm your plans and lock in bookings.”
Even though the Christmas and New Year holiday period is one of the quietest of the year in some industries, many businesses start planning for the annual exodus of staff months in advance.

“I would start putting a Christmas roster together two to three months out so we know what coverage we have got and we can put in plans so that all our clients and candidates can be serviced over that period,” he says.

However, Williams says staff at Link Recruitment are encouraged to take time off over the holiday period.

“In many ways we try to run a skeleton crew and encourage the majority of people to take a week off, or maybe two weeks, over that really quiet period of the year.”

While taking annual leave is encouraged, Williams says it’s common courtesy to give an employer as much notice as possible so they can plan for your absence.

“Don’t book a holiday and think the leave approval will be a fait accompli,” he advises.

The Christmas-New Year holiday may be a quiet period for many businesses, for others it is one of the busiest times of the year.

Robin Harrigan, the director of sales and revenue management at Rydges Hotels and Resorts, says the holiday period affects the business in different ways.

Staff who work in the hospitality side of the business recognise that all hands are needed on deck during holidays, she says.

“Our reservations team – there probably isn’t as much pressure on them over the phones at that time,” she explains.

“Whereas our people on the floor in banquets and restaurants – there is more need there. So it is really quite a complex planning process but it definitely is done in a collaborative way.”

Harrigan says Rydges Hotels’ priority is to its customers and guests and the business has to be manned accordingly over those busy periods.

“You’ll find that anybody going into the hospitality industry knows going in that you are going to work Christmas Day for most of your career,” she says.

But staff are usually given time off in the New Year when demand falls away.

“We do a lot of forecasting which gives you the ability to look at where your peaks and troughs are going to be,” Harrigan says, adding that the company will accommodate leave wherever possible.

“Keeping a balance is important to your work life as well as your personal life.”

When the rush is on there is usually a rush on annual leave taken around all the school holidays, says Link Recruitment general manager Andrew Williams.

However, it is Easter that most often causes a late rush of leave applications.

“Depending on where Easter fits in, where you have Easter close to Anzac Day, a lot of people don’t realise until late in the piece that if they take a couple of days’ leave they can have almost two weeks off,” he says.

Next year this won’t be a problem with Easter falling on March 23, nearly a month before Anzac Day on April 25.

If a business decides to shut down over the Christmas/New Year, employees have no choice but to take leave.

Under the NSW Annual Holidays Act 1944, an employer can temporarily close their business as part of a scheduled annual close-down.

If a business does decide to close over the holiday season, employees must be given one month notice prior to the commencement of the shut-down.

 Staff can either elect to use their holiday leave over that period or take unpaid leave.

If an employee has been employed for less than a year they are still entitled to paid annual leave on a pro-rata basis.

If an employee is entitled to four weeks’ annual leave, but has only been employed for six months, they are then entitled to two weeks’ paid leave over the shut-down period.

* More information: 131628, www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au

The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 27 October 2007