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Annual leave policy

The College places the highest priority on the health, safety and wellbeing of all employees; and taking annual leave is essential to maintain employee wellbeing and a good work-life balance.

This Policy sets out the annual leave entitlement, including bank holidays and Birkbeck closure days.

Staff must take all their annual leave within the leave year wherever possible.

SCOPE

This annual leave policy applies to all employees.

ANNUAL LEAVE YEAR AND ENTITLEMENT

The annual leave year runs from 1 January to 31 December, unless varied by specific arrangement.

Full-time staff working 35 hours per week are entitled to 26 days (182 hours) annual leave, eight College closure days (56 hours), and eight bank holidays (56 hours).

Please note: the entitlement set out above applies from 1 January 2027. For the current 2026 leave year, the entitlement is 25 days annual leave, and six college closure days.

Entitlements to leave are pro-rated for part-time staff and those who join or leave part-way through a leave year.

For staff that work regular and sustained overtime or are contracted for more than 35 hours per week, the annual leave entitlement will be pro-rated up accordingly for their working week. This is based on the average hours contracted over the 52 weeks of the annual leave year; it does not apply to bank holidays or closure days.

Leave should be taken regularly throughout the year. Staff must request annual leave via Business World, in line with the Employment Rights Act 2025 duty to keep records on annual leave. Reasonable notice should be given, ideally four weeks’ notice when requesting leave of a week or more would normally be considered reasonable to enable the effective planning of leave arrangements. Leave requests will be considered fairly and promptly, and every effort will be made to agree them, subject to reasonable notice and operational need.

Where a member of the academic staff makes a request for annual leave during term time, consideration of operational need will include the requirement to fulfil their teaching responsibilities.

BANK HOLIDAYS

The College recognises the following eight English bank holidays:

  • New Year’s Day
  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • May Day Bank Holiday
  • Spring Bank Holiday
  • August Bank Holiday
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day.

When employees are asked to work on a bank holiday in line with the arrangements in the ‘Hours of work, overtime and TOIL policy’, time off in lieu will be confirmed by the line manager. Following discussion with their line manager, the member of staff should submit the TOIL request on Business World.

COLLEGE CLOSURE DAYS

The College closes for normal business during the Christmas and Easter period, however there may be other periods of closure as determined by the University’s Strategy Board. There are eight College closure days in total. Birkbeck employees have paid leave at this time. As with public holidays, a pro-rata entitlement will be given to part-time employees.

RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS

Birkbeck will support requests for time off during religious festivals. Time off, in the form of annual leave, will be agreed at these times with reference to College needs and requirements.

CARRY OVER OF ANNUAL LEAVE

Employees are expected to take all annual leave during the course of the leave year, and managers are also expected to enable them to do so.

A maximum of five days' leave may be carried forward to the following leave year. For part-time employees this will be pro-rata. Carry-over of annual leave is not automatic. Normally carry-over will be agreed, but the employee must discuss and agree it in advance with their line manager and/or in line with local arrangements for requesting annual leave.

If a staff member is unable to take their full leave entitlement due to extenuating circumstances, any request to carry forward more than five days must be approved by the line manager, in consultation with their Head of School/ Executive Dean or Director of Professional Services.

Carry-over of unused annual leave will not be agreed unless all annual leave has been recorded and approved in Business World during the year.

Employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave will be able to carry over any accrued annual leave entitlement where it has not been possible to take it in the current leave year.

All leave not given permission to be considered as carry over leave will be lost. The College will not pay employees for leave not taken as an alternative to carrying it over to the next leave year.

JOINING BIRKBECK

New employees joining the College part way through a leave year will be granted a proportion of the annual leave entitlement for each completed calendar month of service during that leave year. This will be calculated as a proportion of the leave year.

LEAVING BIRKBECK

Employees leaving the College are expected to take any accrued pro-rata annual leave during their notice period. In exceptional circumstance, where this is not possible due to the constraints of the service, employees may receive payment for any accrued but untaken annual leave, pro-rata to their leaving date, with the approval of their Director of Professional Service or Executive Dean. Where a leaver has taken more than their accrued leave entitlement on their last day of service, the College will deduct the equivalent payment from their final pay.

ACCRUAL OF ANNUAL LEAVE

Annual leave may continue to accrue when the employee is absent from the College. This will only apply in specific circumstances such as maternity, adoption, paternity or shared parental leave and sickness absence. Please refer to the relevant leave or absence policy for further guidance.

View our annual leave guidance (Birkbeck staff only).

RESPONSIBILITIES

All Birkbeck employees are responsible for managing their own annual leave. This summary makes this clear.

Employees

Responsible for:

  • making requests for annual leave via Business World, with reasonable advance notice

Managers

Responsible for:

  • ensuring all staff take their annual leave within the leave year
  • authorising leave promptly and monitoring annual leave for their employees
  • where leave is rejected, communicating to the employee the reasons for this
  • assisting an employee in identifying situations where the amount of leave untaken may lead to difficulties
  • when an employee is due to leave the College, discussing with the employee about annual leave plans to ensure, wherever possible, that the full balance is taken

Human Resources

Responsible for:

  • providing guidance on the Annual Leave Policy

Policy review

Policy: Annual Leave Policy

Policy Owner: Human Resources

Approved by:

  • HRSPC (substantive version 1.0)
  • HRSPC (minor update 2.0)
  • HRSPC (substantive version 3.0)

Date approved:

  • Version 1.0: May 2022
  • Version 2.0: December 2023
  • Version 3.0: September 2026