The Buy and Bank Leave Scheme gives you the opportunity to supplement your existing annual leave entitlement.
By allowing flexibility in working arrangements, this scheme can assist with accommodating individual circumstances subject to the needs of your individual service.
Attendance criteria has been removed for Buy and Bank applications made this year – previously, employees had to meet a minimum of 97% attendance level from 1st January to 31st December to qualify for the scheme. This is an agreement made for the Buy, Bank & Unpaid Leave Scheme as of 2023.
Applications for Buy / Bank Leave must be made through an employee’s ‘mySelf’ account. The scheme will be available from November and will have a strict deadline for all submissions which will be communicated to all staff.
The exigencies of the service will determine if you have the requests for bought leave authorised and when you can take it.
Unpaid Leave
Employees can also apply for up to five days unpaid leave (pro rata for part time employees) in any leave year in addition to any buy or bank leave request. Unpaid leave should be requested via mySelf.
There is no qualification or justification required when making a request for unpaid leave. The exigencies of the service will determine if you have the request for unpaid leave authorised and when you can take it.
Unpaid leave allows employees to take extra leave, without pay, and for the cost of that leave to be deducted from the employee’s salary, normally, over the course of the leave year.
The exigencies of the service will determine if you have the requests for unpaid leave authorised and when you can take it.
This will normally be deducted from each pay in the twelve month period, if the request is made during the application window. If you do not qualify for Buy and Bank or Unpaid leave, you can request up to your weekly contracted hours in Special Leave – Unpaid via mySelf – however, this will be deducted in the next available payslip once applied for.
View the Buy & Bank Leave FAQ for more information on this topic.
For manager guidance, click here.