Renfrewshire Council

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting our employees' health, wellbeing, and work-life balance, the Buying Additional Annual Leave (BAAL) scheme is open for employees from Monday 12 December 2022 until Friday 27 January 2023.    

Employees will be able to request to buy up to a maximum of six weeks additional annual leave. These requests should be considered in line with the operational requirements of your service. 

Who can buy additional annual leave

All employees can apply to join the scheme apart from those on: 

• term-time contracts 
• teaching contracts 
• sessional or seasonal contracts and casuals. 

Employees on temporary and fixed term contracts can apply if their contracts expire after 31 March 2024.  

Employees who have expressed an interest in VR/VER may also buy additional annual leave. 

How to approve or decline a request 

As a line manager, you will be able to review requests for BAAL from the colleagues you line manage on Business World.  

Before you approve or decline the request, you should: 

• check with your Senior Management Team to confirm if requests are being agreed centrally within your service at a senior level 
• check any carry over of annual leave from 2022 before approving or declining the requests  
• provide support to your team members who need help with submitting a BAAL request. 

You must approve or decline all requests by Friday 3 February 2023.  

If you decline a request, your team member will get a notification on Business World. However, you should also discuss the reason for declining their request with them. 

Reasons for declining a request could include: 

• a detrimental effect on customer or business requirements 
• it's not possible to reallocate or reorganise the work amongst existing employees 
• they don't meet the criteria to request to buy additional annual leave 
• the length of employee's temporary or fixed term contract 
• the costs associated with covering additional annual leave cannot be accommodated 
• they have made a duplicate request in error 
• the form has not been completed correctly. 

Check the user guide on how to approve or decline a BAAL request on Business World.  [498KB]  

If you need any additional information about buying additional annual leave 

If you have any questions relating to the BAAL guidance, speak to your line manager or contact your link HR  and OD Team in the first instance. 

You can also email employeebenefits@renfrewshire.gov.uk if you have any questions about the scheme.