Additional Christmas closure days
Friday, 23 October 2020
In recognition of the outstanding work undertaken by all colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic, two additional Christmas closure dates are being awarded. These will be on 22 and 23 December 2020.
This now means that the Christmas closure period will run from 22 December 2020 - 1 January 2021, with the University reopening on 4 January 2021.
The announcement was made during the Vice-Chancellor's all-staff briefing on 20 October, in which he remarked that the break was intended to "give you a bit more time to recover from what, for many, will be the most demanding year in our working lives."
The dates will be added to the annual leave allocated for closure dates and public holidays, and so will not come out of existing annual leave balances.
We understand that some colleagues, particularly those in front-line teams around the University, will be required to work and will not be able to take time off over these days. In this case, and where agreed in advance by line managers, arrangements will be made for the leave to be taken at another time.
Please note that the new dates will be added to Employee Self Service (ESS) but this does not happen automatically and manual adjustments need to be made, so please allow HR colleagues sufficient time to complete the work involved. Colleagues who have already booked these days as annual leave can cancel the leave booking.
If you have any queries, please speak to your line manager in the first instance.