Holiday and Absence
Annual Leave
All employees who have worked for the Company for five full years by the 31st December of each calendar year and receive 20 days holiday, will be eligible for 23 days annual holiday from the 1st January of the next calendar year. This will be rolled out to other employees as they become eligible. If you are eligible you will receive a letter in December telling you of any increase to your holiday entitlement. Wilson Vale reserves the right to review this on an annual basis.
Entitlement for Chef Managers increases to 25 days + Bank Holidays after 10 years of service.
Any variation to holiday entitlement i.e. TUPE transfer will be detailed in your contract.
Sickness During Annual Leave
What if I am sick during my holiday?
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If you are sick immediately before your holiday begins and it includes the last day before your holiday, your holiday may be postponed or re-arranged (holiday is defined as starting from the end of your last working day before your holiday. If you are sick during your holiday, confined to your home or the hospital, your holiday may be postponed or re-arranged. In either case, you must notify your manager and you will need to provide a fit note.
Birthday Leave
Happy Birthday!
By way of recognition Wilson Vale wanted to reward employees with an additional day of leave for your birthday, to provide additional rest and recuperation - you deserve it!
Your Birthday leave will be in addition to your paid annual leave entitlement and to the public holidays, you can also take either your birthday or the day after your birthday as paid leave. If your birthday falls at the weekend or on a public holiday, you can take the next working day off. You cannot take this day’s leave at any other time.
In order to be eligible you need to have worked one complete year.
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Please follow the link to view our full Birthday Leave Policy.
Bank Holidays
All employees, working 5 days a week are eligible to the full statutory bank holidays applicable to the UK. Part time employees, who work less than 5 days per week, will receive a pro-rata entitlement.
Consultant Appointments
The normal expectation is that GP and dental appointments will be made at a time outside normal working hours for part-time employees and outside core hours for full-time employees. It is recognised that full and part-time employees should be given reasonable paid time off to attend NHS consultant appointments that cannot generally be arranged or changed outside their normal working hours, evidence of appointment will be required.
Notification of Absence
For all absences from work due to personal sickness or injury, the following rules must be observed:
To ensure that we fulfil our obligations to clients to provide a smooth, professional service at all times we rely on you to co-operate fully with the Company procedures and let us know as soon as possible if you are unable to come to work.
You must contact your manager if you cannot attend work or you know you will be late for any reason. This must be completed at least two hours before you are due to start work, or before your shift is due to start.
Failure to do this will class the absence as unauthorised and will not be paid for. In the event of ongoing absence your Line Manager must be notified as above unless alternative arrangements are agreed to (such as in the event of long term sickness).
You are responsible for telephoning and speaking to your manager in person or in extreme circumstances for arranging for someone else to do so as soon as you are aware that you cannot meet your start time.
Please note text messages are not acceptable. You must phone in person. Any breach of this may result in disciplinary action being taken.
Any notification of absence must include:
a) Your name.
b) The reason for your absence.
c) The date you expect to return to work.
If a message is left with anyone other than your manager you are responsible for ensuring that your manager is contacted during the first day of your absence to explain why you are not at work. This is in addition to the procedure set out above.
Any periods of unauthorised absence are considered to be a breach of contract. If such an absence should occur no payment would be given for that period and disciplinary action will be taken which may result in dismissal for gross misconduct.
Absence Management Procedure
This is to assess the employee’s capability to fulfil their contract of employment to attend work on a regular and consistent basis. It is not to question the genuineness of the reasons for the employee not being at work. Employees will be given every reasonable assistance in returning to work.
ONE: Notification.
All employees will notify their manager of their absence.
Please see the Notification of Absence from Work section.
TWO: Return to work.
Return to work meetings will be carried out by all Managers following an absence from work
THREE: Review Procedure.
A further meeting will be held if the employee has triggered the review procedure.
The Review Procedure stages will be triggered as follows:
Stage one: two spells of absence or 4% absence or greater in a rolling 6 month period.
Stage two: two spells of absence or 4% absence or greater in the 6 month period following a stage one warning.
Stage three: two spells of absence or 4% absence or greater in the 6 month period following a stage two warning.
If there are no further absences or less than the trigger points in the six months after any of the above stages, the employee will revert to the stage below or (if at stage one) will exit the procedure.
Stage four: one spell of absence in the first six months following a stage three warning or two spells of absence during the 12-month period following a stage three warning.
If stage four is triggered, this will mean potential dismissal.
Sickness Absence and Pay
If you are absent through illness or injury you will be paid statutory sick pay in line with the standard Statutory scheme. There is no Company sick pay. The above entitlement will be only paid on receipt of satisfactory certificates for the whole period of absence and forwarded at intervals of not more than one week (unless the certificate covers a longer period).
Qualifying days for calculation of Statutory Sick Pay are the days you are due to work during that week according to the rota at the site you are employed.
TUPE employees may have a sick pay entitlement written into their previous contract. If this is the case, please note that those contractual terms and conditions will remain.
Keeping your manager informed
If you are away sick, you must keep your manager informed of your progress and the date on which you will be returning to work. This is essential so that we can make arrangements to cover your duties. If you have indicated to your manager that you will return on a particular date and this is not the case then you must call your manager as soon as possible. You will also need to inform you manager if you are able to return to work earlier than previously indicated. Please note if you fail to notify your manager of your return and cover has already been arranged then you may be sent home without pay.
Medical Certificates and Reports
If you cannot attend work due to sickness, you must complete an absence self-certification statement for the first 7 days and provide a doctor’s certificate called a fit note for absences of 8 days or more.
You must provide certificates to cover the entire period of absence.
Doctor’s certificates should be sent directly to your manager, who will forward them to payroll for your salary to be processed.
The Company reserves the right to request (at the company’s expense) a medical report from your GP or other medical practitioner and/or to require you to attend a medical examination.
Please note that a failure to comply with any of the above notification requirements may result in disciplinary action being taken against you up to and including dismissal.
Long-term Sickness
The company’s primary aim is to offer assistance to an individual in order to facilitate an early return to work. Where the absence is more prolonged the aim of the procedure is to provide a framework for dealing with people in a fair and equitable manner.
An employee will trigger this procedure after 5 weeks’ continuous absence. The employee may be contacted so that the Company can keep up to date with the employee’s progress, treatment and likely return to work.
After 8 weeks or more absence, if there is no likely prospect of a return to work in the next four weeks, the Occupational Health provider may be contacted and if appropriate a G.P.’s report may be requested.
Following receipt of a medical report, a meeting will take place with a senior manager or with a member of the HR team, looking at the support and help the Company can give. This meeting will also consider when the employee is likely to return to work or what options are available to them if they cannot return to work in their current role in the foreseeable future. The details of the meeting will be confirmed in writing.
Further meetings will be conducted at regular intervals depending on the employee’s circumstances.
Should the absence be prolonged then it may be appropriate to apply the capability procedure.
Return to Work
Upon returning to work your manager will ask you to complete a return-to-work discussion with them. They will then fill in the return-to-work form. If there is any doubt as to your fitness to return to work then your doctor’s opinion will be sought or the opinion of the independent occupational health provider we are using.
Compassionate Leave
In times of an emergency an employee may take compassionate leave to care for a dependant. A “dependant” denotes the employee’s spouse, partner, child, parent or someone living with the employee as part of the family.
An emergency denotes a dependent falling ill, being injured or assaulted, having a baby, having to make long term care arrangements where a dependant is ill or injured, dealing with death of a dependant, dealing with the breakdown of care for a dependant, or dealing with an incident involving an employee's dependant at school.
This entitlement is in respect of unpaid leave only. However, an employee may be permitted to take reasonable time off with pay at the discretion of a senior manager, to deal with the immediate emergency, but will not be automatically entitled to time off to care for the dependant in the long term.
Bereavement Leave
In the event of the death of a member of your immediate family, time off work will be granted up to a maximum of two days of paid leave.
Immediate family is defined as spouse or partner, parent, child (see Statutory Bereavement Leave), sibling or grandparent.
In addition, one day’s paid leave will be granted for the funeral of immediate family.
Any additional leave will be taken as unpaid leave in line with current legislation. In all cases this leave must be discussed with and approved by your manager.
Statutory Bereavement Leave
All employees are entitled to parental bereavement leave following the death of their child under the age of 18 or are stillborn after 24 weeks pregnancy. Eligible parents have a right to two weeks statutory parental bereavement pay as detailed in the Government regulations 2020.
Maternity/Paternity/Adoption Leave/Shared Parental Leave
Growing your family is an important and exciting time! That’s why at Wilson Vale, we’ll support you whilst you take the time off that you need to get your family settled.
Current employment legislation provides statutory rights for employees to take maternity, paternity, adoption and/or shared parental leave on the birth of a child, or when a child is placed with an employee for adoption in order to care for the child.
Wilson Vale operates maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave policies in line with statutory rights as dictated by Government legislation and guidelines will be adjusted accordingly to ensure compliance with current regulations.
An employee who becomes pregnant should notify their manager as soon as possible so that Wilson Vale maternity guidelines can be issued and a risk assessment can be carried out with respect to health and safety, manual handling and use of dangerous chemicals.
Requests for time off for antenatal care must be accompanied with sight of an appointment card.
If an employee wishes to take time off for family related leave is encouraged to notify their manager as soon as is reasonably practicable to discuss their intentions.
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Neonatal care leave
Eligible employees are entitled to neonatal care leave and pay in line with current statutory provisions. If you need time off in these circumstances, you should speak with the HR Department who will explain your entitlements.
Please follow the link to view our Adoption Leave Policy
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Please follow the link to view our Maternity Leave Policy
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Please follow the link to view our Paternity Leave Policy
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Please follow the link to view our Shared Parental Leave Policy
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Please follow the link to view our Neonatal Care Leave Policy
Jury Service
If you are called for Jury service, please let your manager know as quickly as possible. You must claim for loss of earnings allowed for by the Court, Wilson Vale will pay you the difference between your normal salary and the loss of earnings claim received by the court. Please advise Head Office promptly of the amount you have been reimbursed and forward the receipt to them, so that your salary can be calculated accordingly. If in doubt, seek the advice of your manager.