Our holiday year runs from 1st April until 31st March. All full-time team members (those working 40 hours a week) are entitled to 22 days holidays and 8 bank holidays. This is pro-rated for part-time employees.

If you change your contracted working hours, we’ll recalculate your leave entitlement accordingly. Part-time team members who increase their hours on a temporary basis for a period of one calendar month or more will accrue additional holiday time.

Holiday Rules

Please don’t make a habit of not taking your leave. For a start, we don’t pay for any holiday you haven’t taken. But more importantly, we believe it’s super important to take time away from work to avoid stress and burnout, and recharge your batteries. And a happy, healthy team is one of our main goals.

We do however have a few rules we’d love you to note.

  • All holiday must be approved in advance and we appreciate as much notice as possible. We review leave requests weekly in the run sheet call, so be sure to have your requests in by Monday. Ideally double the amount of time you’re taking off. So if you want one week off, please give us 10 working days’ notice.
  • The minimum period you can request is half a day. Because we operate a flexible working policy, if you need to take time for an appointment or if something unexpected crops up, these don’t count as holiday. Just keep Slack updated so we know where and when to find you.
  • The maximum holiday period is three weeks, unless there are exceptional circumstances. If you want more than three weeks off, this must be authorised by one of the Directors.
  • If you run out of holiday and need more time, this is fine. You can take a maximum of five unpaid days with written permission from one of the Directors.
  • If you don’t use all your holiday, you may carry some days forward to the following year with our written permission. Officially you can carry up to five days forward, but we’re generally fairly flexible as long as you discuss this with us first. You must use these days within the first month of the new holiday year which is the 1st of April.

Bank Holidays

There are eight bank holidays each year. Some of the dates vary from year to year, but as a general guide these are:

  • New Year’s Day
  • Good Friday
  • Easter Monday
  • Early May Bank Holiday
  • Spring Bank Holiday
  • Late Summer Bank Holiday
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day

We’ll confirm the exact dates at the beginning of each year.

We reserve the right to deduct your bank holiday payment if you’re absent from work (other than on Wholegrain business or agreed by us) the day immediately before or after the bank holiday.

If you’re required to work on a bank holiday, you’ll receive your usual rate of pay and can take your bank holiday entitlement at another time. Any bank holidays in lieu must be taken within the year accrued.

Popular Holiday Times

Certain times of the years, such as Christmas, Easter and school holidays, are naturally more popular when it comes to taking holiday. If you want time off over these periods, please get your requests in early! We’ll do our best to ensure leave is allocated fairly.

We may make the decision to close Wholegrain between Christmas and New Year. If we do, we’ll give you at least a month’s notice, but we reserve the right to ask you to use some of your annual leave entitlement or take unpaid leave.

Sickness, Parental Leave & Holiday

Holiday continues to accrue during periods of long-term sick leave. If you’re unable to take your full holiday allowance because of sickness, you may carry this over to the following year.

Holiday also continues to accrue during parental leave, such as maternity, paternity and adoption. If you’re unable to take your full holiday leave entitlement because of parental leave, you may also carry this over into the following year.

Leaving Work and Holiday

If you leave Wholegrain part way through the holiday year, you may be asked to use any accrued but unused holiday during your notice period. Alternatively, we will pay you in lieu of accrued but unused holiday.

If you’ve taken more than your pro-rated holiday entitlement by the time you leave, this will either be deducted from your final paycheque or we’ll ask you to reimburse us.

Unauthorised Holiday

If you take holiday without seeking prior authorisation, this will be considered as unauthorised absence and your pay will be deducted according. Depending on the circumstances it may also be investigated under our disciplinary procedures.