Additional leave compliance rules and complexities

Working patterns

Full-time work is 8 hours a day, or 40 hours a week. The employee must give express consent for any and all overtime work, and they may not work more than 138 hours’ overtime across a four-month period. Nor can they work more than 250 hours of overtime each year. For the first two hours of overtime, employees get 150% of their regular pay. This extends to 200% for every following hour. Anytime an employee works on a Sunday they must receive 200% of their regular pay.

Annual leave

The annual leave year runs from April 1 to March 31 of the following year. Employees accrue two days of holiday a month. Though if they’ve been in the role for more than a year, this extends to 2.5 days a month. If they’ve been in the role for 15 years or more, they accrue 3 days of leave each month.

Sick leave

After 1 month of employment, employees are entitled to full sick pay for 9 working days, after which they need to provide a doctor’s note.

Maternity and paternity leave

Expectant mothers are free to choose when their maternity leave begins, though it can start no earlier than 50 days before the expected due date. Once their leave starts, they receive maternity pay for 105 working days. Male employees can take up to 54 days of paternity leave, though they can only take up to 18 days at the same time as the mother, and they must spread the remainder of the leave across at least two separate periods. Until the child’s 9 months old, both parents can take up to 158 days of parental leave with benefits, though they cannot take the leave simultaneously.