Bank holidays and Christmas shutdown day

Christmas shutdown day

The next shutdown day is on Friday 27 December 2024.

The council operates a shutdown day between Christmas and New Year. You must book this day as annual leave through My Oracle if it falls on a day you would normally work. Christmas shutdown day is already included in your annual leave balance.

Some services need to remain open on shutdown day.  If you need to work, you and your line manager will agree an alternative day for you to take off instead.

You'll also find the Christmas shutdown date on the Time-recording spreadsheet or plan ahead with the Shutdown day schedule (PDF, 40KB).

Bank holidays

Check the upcoming bank holidays on GOV.UK

If you work full-time

If you are a full-time employee, you do not need to book bank holidays off as this is not included your holiday entitlement balance.

If you work part-time

For part-time employees, your annual leave balance that you see on My Oracle includes your contractual annual leave and your pro rata bank holiday allowance.

If a bank holiday falls on your regular working day, you should book the hours that you normally work that day as annual leave. 

For bank holidays that do not fall on a working day leave, these can be taken from your annual leave allowance at any time.

If you’d like to change your working pattern temporarily in a week that covers a bank holiday, discuss this with your line manager.

If you have a compressed working pattern

If you work full time hours, but less than 5 full days per week (such as a 9-day fortnight) you are still entitled to receive the same amount of bank holiday leave hours, even if a bank holiday falls on your non-working day.

If you work 37 hours per week, you will be entitled to up to 7.4 hours (for example, the standard working day, not your longer working day) as alternative time off for each bank holiday that falls on your non-working day.

When a bank holiday is expected, you and your line manager should arrange an alternative day for you to take as time off. This time off is not recorded on My Oracle, so you and your manager should make a record of this locally.

It is recommended that you take the alternative time off within 2 weeks of the original bank holiday date.

Your alternative bank holiday time-off must be used before the end of the holiday year and cannot be carried-over into the next holiday year.  

To find out how to book this on My Oracle, see the compressed working pattern section on the booking annual leave page. 

If you need to work on a bank holiday

Some essential or statutory services need to remain open on bank holidays. If you need to work on a bank holiday, you and your line manager will agree an alternative day for you to take off instead.