Renfrewshire Council

As you may be aware we are in discussions with trade union colleagues with a view to modernising public holiday entitlement for local government Council employees.

We are proposing to convert six of the current 12 public holidays into annual leave days.

The change will give employees the flexibility to decide when to use their annual leave days throughout the year.  It will also help us to continue to adapt our ways of working to provide the flexible, accessible services our residents have come to expect.

Discussions remain ongoing with our trade union colleagues, however at present, no agreement has been reached, and we will continue discussions into 2025.

As a result, the 2025 public holidays for Council employees, are:

• New Year -Wednesday 1 January 2025,Thursday 2 January 2025 and Friday 3 January 2025
• Good Friday-Friday 18 April 2025
• Easter Monday- Monday 21 April 2025
• Early May (May Day)- Monday 5 May 2025
• Late Spring (Spring Bank Holiday) -Monday 26 May 2025
• Paisley Fair- Monday 4 August 2025
• Autumn Holiday- Friday 26 September 2025 and Monday 29 September 2025
• Festive Holiday- Thursday 25 December 2025 and Friday 26 December 2025
• Day of no work requirement- Wednesday 31 December 2025

Carry forward of unused annual leave in 2025

As we are approaching the end of the 2024 annual leave year, colleagues are reminded to check their annual leave balance on ERP (Business World).

If you have more than 5 years' service, you can request to carry over a maximum of 5 days (pro-rated) of your leave entitlement into 2025 and this can be used throughout 2025. 

If you have less than 5 years' service, you can carry over a maximum of 5 days of your annual leave entitlement and use these by 31 January 2025, otherwise you will lose them.  Your Head of Service may agree some discretion with HR&OD in exceptional circumstances.

If you've not already done so, and if applicable, please submit your annual leave days for Friday 27 and Monday 30 December 2024 when the council closes all non-essential services during the holiday period. If for any reason you do not have enough remaining annual leave to cover these days, please speak to your line manager urgently who will arrange to adjust your 2025 annual leave balance by emailing hrpolicy@renfrewshire.gov.uk. Flexi leave and special leave cannot be used. 

If, in anticipation of the changes outlined above, you have booked Friday 3 January as annual leave, please cancel this request, as this will be a public holiday.

Please do not book any annual, flexi or special leave for 2025 until 1 January 2025.If you have submitted or approved any leave for 2025, this will be declined from the ERP (Business World) and will be added back to your 2024 entitlement.  

Please ensure you submit or delete any leave requests still sitting in draft or that have been returned to you by your manager or the system.

Guidance for managers

Please share the attached information with your teams and employees who do not have access to email.

Managers are asked to urgently approve or decline any outstanding annual leave requests in Business World.

Looking forward into 2025, managers are encouraged to monitor annual leave requests more regularly ensuring a good work life balance for their teams to avoid having a high annual leave balance towards the end of the year. 

Published on Monday 9 December 2024