As working lives become more hectic, employees taking career breaks or sabbaticals are becoming increasingly common.

When an employee takes a sabbatical, it is critical that their employers consider the following issues:

Holiday and benefits – Where the contract of employment continues during the sabbatical period, employees will continue to accrue their statutory entitlement to be paid annual leave.

For some employers, this will make the sabbatical arrangement unattractive, but there are ways around this problem. For example, where the sabbatical period falls within the company’s holiday year, the sabbatical agreement should specify when holiday is to be taken. If the sabbatical is paid, holiday will normally be taken during the sabbatical period, but if it is unpaid, employees can be asked to take their holiday before or after the sabbatical period.

Any other contractual benefits to which the employee is entitled when at work may be suspended or varied while taking an extended period of leave. This is open to negotiation between the employee and employer.

Bonuses – Employers should not assume that employees who are absent are not eligible for bonuses if the payment itself falls during the period of absence. If a bonus is discretionary, but refers in any way to the individual achievements of that employee while they were at work, or if it is not discretionary but covers any period during which the employee was at work, then appropriate consideration should be given to whether the bonus should be paid.

Promotion and reviews – If a pay or promotion review occurs while an employee is on sabbatical, the employer should not ignore the absent employee, because to do so could amount to indirect discrimination or even a breach of the implied contractual term of trust and confidence.

Document Ref : 2289503144 Page 1 of 2 OFFDJK-4 Termination of employment – It is not unusual for an employer to insist on a claw-back provision in the agreement, which specifies that the employee should repay any money, or the value of any non-statutory benefits received while absent, if they either do not return, or do not remain in that employment for a given period of time after their return.

Eligibility – Most employers will not allow the option of an extended career break to all of their employees. There will quite often be a service requirement for eligibility. In selecting a period of length of service, an employer should consider what the aim is of having a service requirement and be able to justify the period selected.

Prudent employers will also specify that the option of an extended career break is discretionary and that, regardless of eligibility, the employer reserves the right to refuse a request, on the grounds of business reasons.

If the employer needs to fill the post of the employee on the career break, it should do so in the same way as it would fill the post of an employee on maternity leave; that is, under a fixed-term contract solely for the purpose of covering for the absent employee.

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