Helen Burgess: Sabbaticals – what employers and employees need to know

Everyone needs a complete break from work every so often to switch off and recharge the batteries. What that break will entail differs from person to person, some like to go and sit on a beach or relax at home, while others may prefer their time off to be faster paced! For those who want a longer break to go away and switch off from work entirely over a sustained period of time, there is the option of sabbaticals.

What is a sabbatical?

In short, a sabbatical is an extended period away from work which is agreed upon between the employer and employee to allow them time off work after which they can return to their role.

A sabbatical is typically used when an employee has a desire to go away travelling for a longer period of time than a typical ‘annual leave’ break (employers sometimes limit this to no longer than two-weeks at a time) and can last from anywhere between a few months up to a year. Sabbaticals can also be used to spend time volunteering, care for others, or to go and study full-time without having to juggle work too.

How should employees go about requesting a sabbatical?

Unlike with a normal annual leave request which is typically just submitted through an organisation’s holiday booking system, a sabbatical request will need to be discussed at some length with the employer. Any employee looking to request a sabbatical should check to see if their employer has a sabbaticals policy, then either follow that policy or look to organise a meeting with their line manager to discuss the idea, in terms of how long they would like to take off, what they would be planning to do with their time off, and whether they have any flexibility in their plans if certain times of the year may not work for the employer.

It is unlikely that a sabbatical will be approved during the first meeting, as line managers will likely need to go away and discuss the idea with their superiors, which would include exploring whether similar requests have been submitted before and how they have been managed.

Can an employer reject an employee’s sabbatical request?

There is no legal obligation on employers to accept an employee’s request for a sabbatical. It is however in an employer’s best interests to explore the employee’s request in order to maintain a good working relationship – as a ‘hard no’ to any request may demotivate the employee and lead to them in some instances looking for alternative employment at another organisation.

There are a number of good reasons why an employer may however have to reject a sabbatical request, including:

• The employee is still in their probationary period.
• The workload is too high within the team to lose the employee for a sustained period of time.
• The organisation would struggle to find cover to fill the void left by the employee, especially if their request was at quite short notice.

Where there is an issue with workload or finding sufficient cover, it is worth an employer working with the employee to see whether they can be flexible with their dates and come to a compromise that works for all parties.

What do employers need to consider before an employee’s sabbatical commences?

If a request for a sabbatical is approved, it is not just a case that the employee is free to go on the agreed dates, there are a number of things that need to be sorted beforehand, for instance:

A handover: The outgoing employee needs to produce a detailed handover of all of their role responsibilities and also where existing projects/ pieces of work are up to. It may be the case that if a replacement is coming in to fill the void during the sabbatical, that they commence their role a few weeks before the employee leaving for sabbatical departs, so that they can shadow and learn from them.

Pay: In some instances, employers will have policies in place that allow for employees to be paid at full or reduced rates during their sabbatical. In the vast majority of cases the period of leave will be unpaid although an employee may still be able to exercise their right to take paid holiday during the sabbatical.  There is a statutory entitlement to a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998 and whilst the contractual right to more holiday may be suspended during the sabbatical arrangement, the statutory minimum entitlement will still apply if the contract of employment remains in place.

Benefits: Away from the wage or salary that an employee gets while working, there are a number of other benefits that organisations will need to decide whether they continue to offer employees while they are away on sabbatical.

These include, for example, whether health and/or life insurance will continue to be retained and what will happen with pensions contributions during the time off.

Much like with all periods of extended leave, employers should agree contact (if any) with the employee during the sabbatical (how often and/ or for what issues).

Can an employee extend their sabbatical during their time off?

Employees may feel part way through their sabbatical that they wished they had taken more time off, and they can request an extension with their employer. However, this is completely at the discretion of the employer to decide upon and if the employer says no to an extension, then the employee will be expected back at work on the original date agreed.

If the employee doesn’t return to work on the date agreed without good reason (ie. illness) then it would be classed as an unauthorised absence, at which point an employer could begin disciplinary proceedings.

Employees may also wish to ‘tag on’ holiday at the end of the sabbatical but again, this must be agreed with the employer and could be subject to any holiday policy the employer has.

Legal Considerations

A key legal issue is whether the employment contract remains in force during the sabbatical – the shorter the period the more likely it will do so.

If the sabbatical is for an extended period, it is common to find that the employee and employer agree that the employment will end, and that the employee will be re-employed when the sabbatical leave ends.

In these circumstances all contractual entitlements and obligations will cease during the leave period.

If the employment does remain in place during the leave, the contractual entitlements may be varied but certain key obligations will remain binding.