Employee

GENERAL RULES FOR GRANTING HOLIDAY LEAVE

1. Holiday leave is granted by immediate supervisors based on individual employee requests made through SAP. As a subsidiary measure, in order to plan and safeguard the proper workflow and use of holiday leave by employees, managers are recommended to draw up paper leave plans for their own Organisational Unit. Employees in managerial positions shall establish a substitute, i.e. appoint the person who shall replace while they are on leave.

2. At least one part of a holiday leave which includes the payment of a holiday benefit should cover no less than 14 consecutive calendar days. It is unacceptable for employees to take only the minimum number of holiday leave days necessary for the payment of the aforementioned benefit
and to leave the rest of their holiday for the following calendar year.

3. Academic staff should take their holiday leave during the period when they are not teaching (e.g. spring holiday, summer holiday, winter holiday and half term break). At least one part of the leave should last no less than 24 consecutive calendar days. In justified cases, the aforementioned part of the leave of absence may be reduced, but may not last less than 14 consecutive calendar days.

4. The date of leave shall be determined by the head of the unit in consultation with the employees. When considering an employee's request for the date of leave, it should be borne in mind that it is not absolutely binding on the employer, as the employer must also guarantee the proper course of work. The mere submission of a holiday request does not excuse an employee's absence from work (The judgment of the Polish Supreme Court of
13 May 1998, I PKN 99/98). The request must be approved by the employer (superior).
in accordance with the rules adopted by the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, through the SAP system.

5. The entitlement to holiday leave is strictly personal and the employee cannot waive or transfer their right to leave to another person. Holiday leave must be taken in kind,
which means that one may not demand a cash payment from the employer in exchange for the leave.

6. Persons who terminate their employment with the University in a given year (fixed-term employees, retiring employees, employees on notice) are required to take all their holiday leave (accrued and current), and the heads of units (Deans of Faculties, Directors of Institutes, Centres and Heads of Departments) shall ensure the correct use of such leave. Duringthe period of notice of termination of the employment contract, the employee is obliged to use the leave to which they are entitled if the employer grants it within this period. It is therefore entirely up to the employer whether to grant the employee leave during the notice period.

7. If the entire leave is not taken, payment in lieu of unused leave is made, charged entirely to the salary budget of the organisational unit concerned.

8. Holiday leave granted may be postponed at the request of the employee or at the initiative of the employer, due to the special needs of the employer if the absence of the employee would cause serious disruption to the course of work. Holiday leave may be also postponed when the employeecannot start their leave on the agreed date for reasons that justify their absence from work, such as illness.  A recall of an employee from holiday leave is an official order with which the employee shall comply. The Employer may issue this order
when the employee's presence at the workplace is required due to circumstances unforeseen at the time of commencement of the leave.

Heads of Organisational Units (Deans of Faculties, Directors of Institutes, Centres and Heads of Departments) shall supervise and bear full responsibility for the correct
use of holiday leave by subordinate employees in accordance with the current legislation,
in particular, they are obliged to:

1/ grant holiday leave to an employee in the calendar year in which the employee became entitled to it,
2/ grant accrued leave to an employee for the years 2018-2021, by 30 September 2022, following which the right to leave for 2018 shall become time-barred,
3/ absolutely grant holiday leave (accrued and current) to employees whose employment relationship is terminated or expires by operation of law during the year,
4/ exercise control over the correct use of annual holiday leave by subordinate employees and not to allow holiday leaves from previous years to accumulate.

The employer may unilaterally grant holiday leave to an employee without their consent,
on the date of their choice, in the event that:

1/ the employee has not taken their accrued holiday leave despite the approaching deadline of 30 September and persistently refuses to agree on the date on which the leave is to be taken within the statutory period
(judgement of the Polish Supreme Court of 24 January 2006 (file no. I PK 124/05)),

2/ a state of epidemic emergency or a state of epidemic declared due to COVID-19 has been declared – accrued holiday leave may be granted for up to 30 days (Article 15gc of the Act of 2 March 2020 on Special Solutions Related to the Prevention, Countering and Combating of COVID-19, Other Infectious Diseases and Crisis Situations Caused by them).

It is good practice to inform the employee of the need to take accrued leave
with the proviso that if the employee does not indicate the date on which they are due to take the leave, the employer shall do so unilaterally.

The provisions of the Labour Code (Article 282) provide for the possibility of punishing the employer with a fine
in the amount of up to PLN 30,000.00 if any accrued holiday leave is identified following inspections of the State Labour Inspectorate.

The detailed rules and procedures for granting holiday leave at our University are set out in sections VIII and IX of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Labour Regulations.

HOLIDAY LEAVE FOR ACADEMIC STAFF

1. Academic staff are entitled to a holiday leave of thirty-six working days per calendar year. Holiday leave should be taken during the period when the academic staff are not teaching (summer holidays, winter holidays, breaks between holidays, days when they are not teaching). An academic staff member taking up employment for the first time acquires, in the calendar year in which they take up employment, the right to holiday leave, at the end of each working month, of 1/12 of their holiday leave entitlement, and the right to subsequent holidays is acquired in advance
   at the beginning of each subsequent calendar year.
   
   
2. An academic staff member shall be entitled to annual leave in proportion to their period of employment in the event of:
   ·   employment during the calendar year;
   ·   termination of employment during the calendar year;
   ·   resumption of employment after returning from unpaid leave, parental leave or health leave.

An academic staff member employed on a part-time basis shall be entitled to holiday leave in proportion to the length of employment; holiday leave shall be granted in days.

HOLIDAY LEAVE FOR NON-TEACHING STAFF

1. An employee taking up employment for the first time acquires, in the calendar year in which they take up employment, the right to holiday leave after having worked each month (partial leave) of 1/12 of the leave accrued during the first year of employment. The right to subsequent annual leave is acquired at the beginning of each subsequent calendar year.
2. The amount of holiday leave depends on the length of service and education of the employee. Pursuant to Article 155 of the Labour Code, the period of work on which the length of leave depends includes the indicated education periods. For graduation from a higher education institution, the length of service determining the length of holiday leave is increased by 8 years. This also applies to "first degree" higher education, which ends with a bachelor's degree. The length of service affecting the length of holiday leave is not the "length of service in the company", which means that it refers to the total employment with all employers with which the employee has ever been in an employment relationship. For an employee with less than 10 years of employment, the length of leave is 20 days, and for an employee with 10 years or more of employment, it is 26 days. An employee who is not a full-time employee benefits from holiday leave that is proportional to the time worked. For example: a 1/2-time employee who is entitled to 20 days of holiday leave (length of service of less than 10 years) acquires the right to 10 days of holiday leave per calendar year.
3. Holiday leave is granted to an employee on days which are working days for the employee according to their working time schedule. Holiday leave is granted on an hourly basis and one day of leave corresponds to 8 hours of work.
4. In certain cases, the timing of holiday leave is not subject to the aforementioned procedure. Employees, including those taking up employment for the first time in their lives, are entitled to four days of holiday leave per year
   on a date of their own choice, which is binding on the employer. An employee shall make a request for such leave no later than on the date of its commencement.