Pay & Benefits

Staff are eligible to use the facilities of the University Sports Centre for a competitive annual fee. The sports centre is currently undergoing a £12.2 million investment programme to improve the facilities on offer adding a brand new gym and swimming pool.

As a monthly paid member of staff, you can either pay per visit or you can pay for a year membership and agree to have deductions taken directly from your salary each month to help you spread the cost. For info on how to join, visit the University’s Sport and Physical Activity website.

Staff are also able to join the university libraries giving access to masses of books and online resources. Once you have your university ID card (please see above) you can present this at the library reception to register as a library user. For more information on joining the University libraries visit the libraries webpage.

As a member of LUU staff you can access the services of Bright Beginnings Childcare Centre, an on campus independently run childcare facility. The centre offers nursery care for children from 3 months to 5 years and play schemes in major school holidays for children of school age. For more information about the childcare centre, contact the Centre Coordinator Angela Hynes on a.c.hynes@leeds.ac.uk or call 0113 343 1818.

If you’re a parent with children in registered childcare you may be able to exchange some of your salary for Kiddicare childcare vouchers, which can enable you to save on national insurance contributions.
For further information you can phone Kiddicare directly on 0800 612 9015 or contact a member of the HR and Admin department.

We’d love you to spend your money at LUU so to encourage this we offer a 10% discount off a range of products in Essentials, Extras and Cats.
To take advantage of your discount, simply show your LUU badge to the cashier BEFORE you make a purchase to qualify for your discount.

Discounted Travel Cards

LUU staff can save 15% of the cost of travelling on buses and trains in the West Yorkshire area including Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield. You can have deductions taken from your monthly salary to help cover the cost. For full details of prices and an application form to apply for a discounted MetroCard visit the University’s travel benefits webpage.

Lift Sharing

Ever thought of car sharing as a greener and cheaper way of getting to work? The University operates a car sharing scheme. For more details on the University’s car sharing scheme visit their webpage.

The Leeds City Credit Union is a savings co-operative owned and operated by its members and offers a number of financial services including loans and savings accounts. Did you know that as an LUU employee you can arrange for payments to be deducted directly from your monthly salary? For more information on the credit union or to arrange monthly deductions, please speak to a member of the HR and Admin department.

At LUU we aim to run a staff social event every two months to enable our staff to socialise with work colleagues. Past staff social events have ranged from Bingo, outdoor ice skating, treasure hunts, quiz nights to dog racing! Keep your eyes out on staff notice boards and the homepage news articles on the intranet for future details.

When you start work as a monthly paid employee you will automatically be invited to join the University’s ‘PAS’ Pension scheme and full details will be provided. You can opt out of the scheme if you don’t wish to join.

If you decide you would like to join, in very basic terms you will pay a contribution of your monthly salary equal to 6.25% (but you get tax relief on this and also pay lower NI contributions, so it actually costs you a lot less!) LUU will then pay an employer contribution of 17.5%.

If you would like more information please visit the University’s PAS frequently asked questions webpage or speak to a member of the HR and Admin department.

LUU's holiday year runs from 1st January to 31st December.

Full time members of staff receive 26 days holiday per year. Part time staff (including those who do not work all year round) receive holiday entitlement as a proportion (pro-rata) to that of full time staff.

If you work irregular shift patterns you may have your holiday entitlement expressed in hours rather than days.

For full time staff we expect that at least two weeks of your holiday will be taken consecutively each year and that at least two weeks of your holiday will be taken out of term time.

Depending on which service you work in there may be additional rules about when you should take holiday. Please check this out with your Manager. You should never book a holiday before checking with your Manager first that you can take the time off that you would like.

Booking Holidays

Your holiday request form is available from the HR & Admin department and should be submitted at least ten working days before a holiday. Where a number of staff all require holiday at the same time, we’ll handle this on a first come first served basis!

Public Holidays and Closed Days

In addition to this the Union is closed for the eight statutory public holidays which are:

• New Year's Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• May Day
• Spring Bank Holiday
• August Bank Holiday
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

There will be other days when the Union is officially closed; these are normally published at the start of every year. If the closed days exceed 6.5 days then this will be deducted from your annual leave entitlement.

Staff who do not work full time or all year round receive a pro rata entitlement to both public holidays and closed days.

Can I carry over my holidays from one year to the next?

Yes you can. A maximum of 5 days holiday may be carried forward from one year to the next (as long as your Manager agrees). These days must be taken in the first three months of the year.

What if I am sick?

If you are on sick leave you will continue to accrue holiday entitlement for the duration of your sick period.

What about part time employees?

 

Holidays for those who are not full time are worked out on a pro rata basis. Individual cases will vary so please check with the HR Administrator to determine your holiday entitlement. The pro rata entitlement takes into account all bank holidays and closed days.
 

What happens if I leave LUU?

If you leave LUU and have not taken all your holiday entitlement, you will either be required to use up your holiday before you leave or will receive any outstanding holiday pay as part of your final pay. 
 

Maternity Leave

If you become pregnant you are immediately entitled to a minimum of 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave regardless of length of service or hours worked. You are also entitled to an additional maternity leave period of a further 26 weeks regardless of length of service.

We offer more generous maternity leave pay above the statutory minimum for our staff, subject to notifying us in sufficient time of the pregnancy and minimum length of service requirements.

For the full maternity policy and details on the LUU maternity pay scheme, please contact a member of the HR and Admin department for further info.

Partner's Leave for New Parents

Two week's paid leave is granted to biological or adoptive fathers and recognised partners. This is subject to the new parent having worked for LUU continuously for 26 weeks ending with the 15th week before the baby is due. Additional leave may be granted on an unpaid basis at the discretion of the Chief Executive. If you are a prospective parent, you are required to give three months notice of your anticipated absence to your Manager.

For babies born on or after 3rd April 2011, new parents can choose to transfer up to 26 weeks of the mother’s additional maternity leave to her partner.
Fathers/partners may take up to 26 weeks’ additional paternity leave within the first year of their child’s life, as long as you meet certain criteria and the mother has returned to work before using her full maternity leave. This applies to all new parents whether you work for the same or different employers.
The earliest that additional paternity leave can begin is 20 weeks after the date on which your baby is born and it must end no later than 12 months after that date. Additional paternity leave is taken as a single block in multiples of complete weeks. The minimum time you can take is two weeks and the maximum is 26 weeks. You may also be entitled to statutory paternity pay for this period depending on your circumstances.

Parental Leave

If you are the parent of a child who was aged under five and you have one year's service, you are entitled to a total of 13 weeks unpaid parental leave per child. This has to be taken before the child's 5th birthday.

If you have adopted a child or you adopt a child in the future and you have one year's service you will receive an entitlement of 18 weeks. In this case you can either take the leave within five years or before the child's eighteenth birthday, whichever comes first.

You can take the parental leave in blocks of one week at a time and can take up to four weeks in any one year. 

Some of the other different types of LUU recognise and covered in this section are:

• Time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant
• Compassionate Leave
• Unpaid Sabbatical Leave
• Leave for Jury Service
• Leave for Public Service
• Medical/Dental Appointments
• Hospital Appointments
• Study Leave
• Trade Union Activities

Time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant

As a member of LUU staff, you benefit from allowance to take paid time off to deal with emergencies involving dependants. Under this arrangement you can take up to 5 working days in any 12 month period. Any time off in excess of this may be granted as unpaid leave or taken from your holiday entitlement.

The types of situations that are covered by this leave are:

• The sudden illness of a dependant where immediate arrangements for their care need to be made.
• The need to spend time with a child or close relative who is seriously ill.
• The breakdown of normal care arrangements.
• The need to make longer term arrangements to cope with a care problem.

This type of leave is for emergencies only which means it should not exceed one or possibly two days whilst you make alternative arrangements for longer term care.

You should speak to your Manager as soon as possible with your request for leave. On the first day of leave you will be expected to follow the normal rules for notification by contacting your Manager.

Compassionate Leave

Up to five working days may be granted as paid leave to enable you to deal with distressing situations. In exceptional circumstances longer periods of leave may be granted as unpaid leave. You may need to use this type of leave to deal with:

• The death of a partner, a close relative or a person with whom you have a close continuing relationship.
• A domestic catastrophe such as a household fire.

The amount of leave granted depends on each individual's circumstances.

To help you cope with distressing situations LUU staff also have access to a Counselling service via the University. This service may be invaluable to you during difficult times. The service is free of charge and completely confidential. If you would like to discuss this option further, please contact a member of the HR and Admin department.

Sabbatical Leave

If you have completed at least two years of service you may take an extended period of unpaid leave between three and twelve months. Sound interesting? Please visit the work-life balance page under the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of the intranet for further details.

Leave for Jury Service

LUU will grant time off work for an employee called for Jury Service.

Leave for Public Service

If you wish to undertake public duties (e.g. local government council duties) you should discuss this with the Chief Executive who is authorised to grant special leave for these types of duties.

Medical and Dental Appointments

Because we can accomodate working flexibly at LUU, wWe ask that staff arrange medical and dental appointments in their own time. If this is not possible then any time taken off should be made up.

Hospital Appointments

Paid time off is given for in and out patient hospital appointments. In order to claim this type of paid leave, we will ask you to produce an appointment card or hospital letter.

Study Leave

LUU encourage learning and development in every area of the organisation. AS such, where members of staff are undertaking work related study, half a day paid leave per exam may be granted at the discretion of the Chief Executive.

Trade Union Activities

If you are a trade union official, LUU recognises your right in law to reasonable time off with pay during working hours to attend to trade union duties.

LUU grants reasonable paid time off during working hours to enable officials to carry out a number of trade union activities. If you are would like to know more about the types of duties allowed for, or are interested in joining a trade union, please contact a member of the HR and Admin department for further details.

Provided you follow the correct absence reporting procedure* and you’ve been with us more than 3 months, LUU will continue to pay you whilst you are off sick. The amount you receive depends on a number of things including your length of service and the length of time that you have been off sick. LUU's sick pay includes anything you would otherwise receive from the government such as Statutory Sick Pay.

*To view the full absence reporting procedure, please visit the Healthy Bodies page under the Health, Safety and Wellbeing section of the intranet.

Statutory Sick Pay is currently paid at a rate of £79.15 per week (correct at 1st September 2009). This is a minimum payment which the Government guarantees you will receive if you are off work.

Sick pay varies according to how long you have worked for LUU and is either full or half pay as indicated in the following table.

Length of Service	Full Pay	Half Pay
After 3 months but less than 6 months	2 weeks	2 weeks
After 6 months but less than 1 year	9 weeks	9 weeks
After 1 year but less than 3 years	13 weeks	13 weeks
After 3 years but less than 5 years	20 weeks	20 weeks
After 5 years	26 weeks	26 weeks

If you go off sick any sick pay that you have already received in the previous 52 weeks will be deducted from your entitlement.

Example: An employee with two year's service goes off sick. During the last year they have already received a total of 5 weeks sick pay. They are now eligible for 8 weeks full pay and 13 weeks half pay, having already received 5 of their 13 weeks entitlement to full pay.
 

What happens if I am sick during a holiday?

If you fall sick during the course of your annual leave we will consider you to be on sick leave from the date of the medical certificate supplied. You will then be able to take the balance of annual leave at a later date.
If a public holiday or a day when the Union is officially closed falls whilst you are on paid sick leave then the sickness allowance will be suspended and replaced by holiday pay for the duration of the holiday. Such days will not count towards the period of allowance in the table given.
 

If you need to travel on LUU business you are entitled to claim reasonable expenses for travel, accommodation and meals. If you are going on a trip please agree the costs with your Manager first.

We encourage staff to use public transport wherever possible. If your journey would be cheaper by train and you choose to go by car, then your claim will be limited to the second class rail fare for the journey.

If you use your own car to travel on LUU business you are entitled to claim a mileage allowance which follow the approved Inland Revenue rates.

What are the current mileage rates?

The current rates are:
45p per mile for the first 100 miles of any return journey
20p per mile for each mile over 100 miles

What are we doing about our carbon footprint?

LUU seeks to reduce the carbon emissions created by any business travel. All staff are asked to record mileage for all business journeys. Air-travel is only allowed in special circumstances with the approval of a Line Manager due to the high level of carbon emissions.
To further support greener transport methods, we will reimburse any work related travel on a bicycle at 20p per mile.

Overnight Stays

If you have to stay overnight you will be entitled to an overnight allowance of £5 in addition to your accommodation allowances. This is to compensate for any expenditure that arises as a result of being away from home for example to call home!

Food and Drink

If whilst on LUU business you are required to eat a meal away from home or your normal place of work, you can claim reimbursement as long as you can provide a receipt. The following maximum allowances will apply.
Breakfast - £5
Lunch - £7
Dinner - £10

How Do I claim?

By filling in a form of course! All claims can be submitted on the expenses claim form (excel) available to download. Fill in your form, get the form countersigned by your Line Manager then pass it to the Finance team to receive your money back. Simple!