Annual Leave Policy and Procedures

All staff members at the University

This policy defines the University’s approach to management of annual leave.

The staff members’ collective or individual employment agreement provides for an entitlement to annual leave with directions for taking of leave and accumulating leave.

Staff members will find further detail in their employment agreement and/or relevant collective.

1. Annual leave is important for the health and well-being of the staff members and to the sound financial management of the University, and must be managed to both these ends

2. Any requests to buy or cash up leave will be considered in accordance with the Leave Plus process.

3. The timing of annual leave will be determined between the academic head/manager and the staff member

Academic staff

1. Annual leave is to be taken by agreement with the academic head and will normally be arranged out of teaching time

2. Annual leave entitlement is expected to be taken in the year that it is granted

Professional staff

The Professional Staff Collective Agreement specifies under G2.3 that “An employee may be permitted to carry forward from one leave year to the next up to half of his/her annual leave entitlement"

3. It is preferred that agreement will be reached between the manager and staff member around timing of annual leave. However, where this is not convenient to the University, the University may decline to grant leave or may direct a staff member to take leave at a certain time

4. There is a responsibility of the individual's manager to ensure that any annual leave that is to be carried forward is normally limited to half of a staff member’s their annual leave entitlement

5. This leave should be actively managed by the individual's manager until it reduces to a level acceptable by the academic unit

6. For professional staff, not more than half of the staff member’s annual leave entitlement (i.e. 2.0 to 2.5 weeks) should be carried forward. This means that managers must manage so that professional staff have not more than 38 days annual leave at any point in time (except where long service leave has been granted recently)

The following definitions apply to this document:

Academic head covers heads of departments, schools and other teaching and research units at Level 3 in the University Organisation Structure

Staff member refers to an individual employed by the University on a full time or part time basis

University means the University of Auckland and includes all subsidiaries  

Include the following:

• Professional Staff Collective Agreement
• Academic Staff Collective Agreement

Owner: Director, Human Resources
Content manager: Associate Director, HR Advisory
Approved by: Vice-Chancellor
Date approved: 15 October 2014
Review date: 1 March 2025