Leave year - TTO staff - General - HR in Schools and Academies

7 Leave year - TTO staff

18 Apr, 2018 16:10

Hi all

Having some trouble with our HR consultants! To give a bit of background here, they are ex-LA HR for schools that were laid off by the Local Authority and a new company started, whereby all the LA schools and academies bought into. So the advice and documents (e.g. contracts) given are all historic LA.

Our contracts of employment state that general T&Cs are in line with the green book (the green book does not state a leave year, however, refers to T&Cs coming into effect from 1st April). In our contracts, for all year workers it explicitly says that the holiday year is 1st April to 31st March, however for TTO staff it is mute. Also, although academies, our schools recognise continuous service from LA schools.

So the scenario that has come up today is we have a TTO support staff who is due to leave on 11th May. We are being told that she is entitled to 13 days extra pay and this is due to calculations being based on 1st September to 31st August. I cannot find any reference to this in any documents and the HR consultants drafted the contracts and I feel do things for ease hence why they refer to 1st September - having just had this response from them (hopefully you can see what I'm battling against here!):

As an Academy, you can choose how to process your leavers.

In [the area based], April – March is used for staff with an annual leave entitlement.

Technically, term time only staff do not have an annual leave entitlement – the salary formula used to calculate their salaries includes an element for annual leave.

However, their salary payment is spread over 12 months and if someone leaves before the end of the academic year there is usually a shortfall in the salary payment they should have received – a formula is used to calculate the number of days shortfall and these days are paid to them at the time they leave – in the past, the Local Authority called it accrued annual leave, but this has proved to be misleading.

This Is the reason why this calculation is not mentioned under annual leave entitlement within the contract.

Does anyone know of any agreement in conjunction with the green book that refers to the leave year, and in the absence of the leave year being clear, would we have to default to the leave year starting on staffs' anniversaries?

Thanks - K

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Nina Waters | 0 Posts

18 Apr, 2018 16:43

Hi Kimberly,

I'd suggest that if your contract and handbook is mute on this subject, then you'd have to look at custom and practice - how annual leave has been calculated for your school in the past (rather than across the LA).

In the school where I work, we've recently updated our contracts for new starters and included a clause stating that the annual leave entitlement for term time staff is presumed used up as soon as it can be in the stated annual leave year - so the first 5.6 weeks of school holidays in any year are allocated as official annual leave (unless the person is on other leave or taking a school trip or something).

Do contact me directly if sharing the wording on this might be any use in the future.

Nina
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Kimberly | 0 Posts

18 Apr, 2018 17:05

In reply to Nina Waters:
Hi Nina

I believe that the calculation is in fact wrong, as the HR consultants have been doing something for ease as opposed to C&P. If we followed their approach, we've had TTO support staff leave in June and July who have been underpaid due to the 'banked' August pay not being paid to them as per the HR consultants calculations.

That's unusual wording and would be interested to know why you allocated the days? However, for the sake of the pay calculation, if you pay 12 equal monthly payments it doesn't impact the calculation as you'd still need to work out if staff have been over/under paid when leaving.

Historically, the green book was for all local authority workers, not just schools, so the leave year was and still is I believe 1st Apr to 31st Mar. It just seems the fall back when we ask where certain practices come from is "you're an academy you can do what you want" instead of actually giving us some thoughtful advice!

Prior to my time our MAT went through harmonisation which was led by the consultants, annual leave being one of the key changes, and they still did not say what the leave year is for TTO staff because they used their contracts.

It's all very sketchy and I'm just trying to understand why things are done so I can be clear when explaining it to staff. TTO working is tricky enough :)
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Jacqueline | 0 Posts

19 Apr, 2018 09:47

In reply to Kimberly:
Hiya
I don't think your HR advisors are talking about annual leave owed - I think they are talking about salary owed.

Where someone works term time only but is paid across the whole academic year, they do their work between Sept and July so the amount of work they have done versus the amount of work they have been paid for is out of balance till the end of the year when it evens out as they are paid for August despite doing no work then.

For example, suppose someone works 39 weeks out of 52 and the full time salary is £16,000. They work three quarters of the full calendar year so their actual pay for the year is £12,000. This is split into twelve monthly installments so they receive £1000 per month, every month of the year regardless of if they are at work or on holiday.

If they were to leave at the end of May, they would have received 9 months pay from Sept to May (£9000) which is three quarters (0.75) of their £12,000 salary but they would have worked for 33 weeks out of 39 (I've worked that out very roughly, based on my son's school holidays) which is 0.85 of their working year. So they've been paid for less time than they have actually worked. Hence when they leave they are owed some pay for the days they have worked in excess of what they've been paid.

I think that's the amount that the HR advisors are talking about - holiday comes into it as payment for holidays is added on to the amount TTO people are paid every month, so part of that money owed is in respect of holidays but actually it's simpler not to worry about which is holiday pay and which is money owed for days worked.

Does that help at all or have I confused things even further?

Jackie
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Kimberly | 0 Posts

19 Apr, 2018 09:59

In reply to Jacqueline:
Thanks Jackie - I get that part, but my question is why would you calculate Sept-Aug when the holiday year is Apr-Mar and "included"? Yo wouldn't use one calculation for pay and one for holiday.

As if that was the case, those that start in the Easter term would not have accrued enough to be paid for the whole of August?

I'm looking more for a paper trail as all the paperwork I can find references Apr-Mar. Simply saying we use Sept-Aug because it's easier isn't washing with the staff or me tbh. I just want to get it right and be able to back up why we do things.
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Sasha | 0 Posts

21 Apr, 2018 01:05

In reply to Kimberly:
TTO staff are paid on a pro-rata salary and the holiday is included in their pay. For someone who works TT and the 5 inset days, they are paid for 44.3 weeks per year which is inclusive of their statutory holiday pay. You also need to pay support staff to the end of the term if they work to the last day of term. Eg; my school breaks up 20 Jul, if a member of support staff who isn’t coming back 1st September works to that day, you have to pay them to 31 Aug. Staff in a school on a 52 week a year contract (eg site staff) most likely have their holiday year Apr-Mar. Ours did but we changed this (we are an academy) to fall in line with everyone else to Sept - Aug. If a TT staff member leaves 11 May, I would have thought they are paid to 11May. If they work until you break up for May half term, they are paid to the Sunday before the school returns. Eg, 3 June. Same for teachers. Full time staff might be owed annual leave if not taken. For everyone else, it’s in their pay as they cannot take holiday in term time. Does that help?
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Kimberly | 0 Posts

23 Apr, 2018 10:32

In reply to Sasha:
Hi Sasha

My question is being confused - I know how to pro rata the pay, what I'm asking is what year do schools use and why, given the green book states 1st Apr as the start date for support staff?

In my scenario, if their year starts 1st April, they would have only worked 4 weeks of their 38, and be due the pay for that period plus the holiday accrued, however, based on what everyone is saying they would be paid their annual salary (incl. of holiday ent) / 52.143 weeks x 6 weeks worked (or even more if you calculate from Sept), which is more than they're entitled to.

Our consultants say Sept-Aug because that's how they've always calculated it, which has been taken from the LA - but why? The T&Cs all refer to 1st April, all year round staff are 1st April. The only reason I can think is because it's easier to calculate in line with the school year due to the accrued pay factor, but that surely doesn't make it right?

For all year workers we don't say they work for 44 weeks of the year and not include holiday entitlement, nor do we reference holiday pay as included in salary or say it's rolled-up. Holiday is also pro rated if they start/leave based on the holiday year as per the green book, which is 1st April.
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Amanda | 0 Posts

25 Apr, 2018 13:47

Hello Kimberly

I am new to HR in schools and am struggling with the same issues around payment for o/s salary and or leave for TTO support staff. We too clarify April to March for those who work all year around - but do not specify a leave year for any TTO staff. The Green Book says "The Leave Year" but does not expand on what that is. We have a complex spreadsheet that calculates days worked / school holidays / and then gives a figure to pay if a TTO employee leaves before the end of the academic year. However - this calculator asks for the historic start date - so if an employee starts at the beginning of another term this is taken into account when calculating o/s pay. In summary therefore the default isn't necessarily Sept to Aug (and it maybe that your HR team are in effect doing what you suggest - if they use the same calculations as we do here) and using the anniversary as the leave year.

On another note we do not pay support staff who leave at the beginning of the school holidays until the end of that term as we do teachers. Their contracts stipulate a number of months notice - not term end dates as per the STPC.

Regards Amanda
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