Annual leave for employees is both a statutory right and an employee benefit.
All organisations are obliged to give their employees statutory leave entitlement for the leave year.
This period can run from various months in the year depending on the organisation, but usually either begins in January and ends in December with the calendar year, or begin in April and end in March with the financial year. Either way, employees are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks holiday per leave year. This leave is worked out pro rata depending on the hours worked by an employee.
Any employee who has worked for an organisation for one month is entitled to statutory annual leave. Failure to provide this statutory right to employees is illegal on the part of the employer.
Organisations may also choose to offer enhanced annual leave entitled as an additional employee benefit. However it is important that employees are aware that there are certain things that need to be considered before booking any annual leave.
Most importantly, employees need to consider other employees requests for annual leave, as office cover needs to be arranged before any annual leave is approved.
Furthermore, organisations may choose to give an additional benefit surrounding leave in the form of flexible working hours. This would allow employees to work flexible hours on a daily basis between certain time frames, and accruing additional leave for working overtime. This is an extremely desirable benefit for any organisation.
However this is not a legal requirement outlined by employment law, and organisation are not obliged to offer any enhanced annual leave, or additional benefits surrounding leave entitlements or flexible working hours.