Purpose of the annual leave policy

1. GardenWild Ltd (‘we’ or ‘our’) recognise the right of our staff (‘you’ or ‘your’) to take paid annual leave each year. We believe that it is important for you to rest and we strongly encourage you to make use of your annual leave entitlement.

2. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that both staff and managers are clear on the entitlements, rules and processes surrounding your annual leave entitlement. If you have questions about the contents of this policy, please contact Company Director.

3. This policy applies to all employees, irrespective of seniority, tenure and working hours, including all directors and officers, casual or agency staff, trainees, interns, fixed-term staff and workers (our ‘staff’). It does not apply to self-employed contractors.

4. Some of the entitlements and rules in this policy summarise statutory rights. If any statutory rights change and become inconsistent with this policy, we will amend the policy to reflect these changes.

5. This policy is not part of your contract of employment and we may amend this policy at any time, at our absolute discretion.

Annual leave entitlement

6. Our annual leave year runs from 1 January to 31 December.

7. You are entitled to 28 days of annual leave per year pro rata inclusive of UK bank holidays (your ‘annual leave entitlement’).

8. Your annual leave entitlement is the paid time off that you are entitled to. You may request additional unpaid time off, which may be granted entirely at the discretion of Company Director.

9. Your annual leave entitlement will continue to accrue while you are on any family leave (ie parental or adoption leave) or sick leave. Requesting annual leave

10. Annual leave is recorded by our HR Manager. Requests for annual leave should be made in writing to Company

Director.

11. You should ensure that your annual leave requests are approved before booking a holiday. We are not liable for any loss incurred by you if you incur costs and make commitments prior to receiving approval.

12. If you take annual leave without approval we may take disciplinary action against you.

13. You should provide double the amount of notice of the time you are requesting. For example, if you wish to book 2 weeks’ annual leave you should provide 4 weeks’ notice.

14. Please note that Company Director has the right to refuse your annual leave request, taking into consideration business needs, the high volume of annual leave requests received at certain times of year (eg school holidays), and the notice provided.

15. We will not allow annual leave to be taken within 3 months of your employment commencing, unless this leave was pre-arranged and discussed with us during the recruitment process.

Holiday pay

16. You will be paid your regular pay during any annual leave time that you take. If you work a shift pattern or irregular hours (ie a different number of hours each week), your holiday pay will be worked out based on the average number of hours per week worked during the preceding 52 weeks.

17. If you are regularly paid a commission, bonuses, or overtime, an average of the amount you recieve from these payments will be added to all of your standard holiday pay. Illness and bereavement during annual leave

18. If you become ill during your annual leave, you may reallocate your leave as sick leave by following our usual policy and procedures for sickness. Any time reallocated as sick leave will be added back onto your annual leave entitlement. To use this time, you should request new annual leave following the ordinary procedures outlined in this document.

19. If you reallocate your annual leave as sick leave, you will be paid according to our usual sickness policy.

20. A copy of our sickness policy is available from Company Director.

21. If you experience a bereavement during your annual leave, you may reallocate your leave as bereavement leave if you are entitled to such under our usual bereavement leave policy. Any time reallocated as bereavement leave will be added back onto your annual leave entitlement. To use this time, you should request new annual leave following the ordinary procedures outlined in this document.

22. If you reallocate your annual leave as bereavement leave, you will be paid according to our bereavement leave pay policy.

23. A copy of our bereavement leave policy is available from Company Director.

Requiring staff to take annual leave

24. We will close each year for 7 days over the December/January holiday season. During this time, you will be required to take annual leave. This time will constitute part of your annual leave entitlement.

25. We may require you to take annual leave at a certain time, for example if we decide to close the business for a period. In such situations, we will give you at least twice as many days’ notice as the amount of annual leave days that we require you to take (eg 10 days’ notice for 5 days’ annual leave).

When annual leave can be taken

26. Annual leave may be taken at any time during the annual leave year, subject to the discretion of Company Director.

27. Annual leave may, at the discretion of Company Director, be taken immediately before or after family (ie parental or

adoption leave) is taken (ie it may be added onto your family leave).

28. If you intend to take annual leave immediately before or after family leave, you should discuss this with Company

Director when you arrange your family leave.

Bank holidays

29. Time off for bank holidays must be taken and will be deducted from your ordinary annual leave entitlement.

Carrying over annual leave entitlement

30. Wherever possible, you should use your full annual leave entitlement for each annual leave year within that year. If you do not, your entitlement cannot be carried over into the next annual leave year and will be lost (subject to the exceptions below).

31. You may carry over 4 weeks of unused annual leave entitlement if you are unable to use your full entitlement within the annual leave year due to being on long-term sick leave, or because you have taken family (ie parental or adoption) leave at a time which prevents this. Any annual leave carried over for these reasons must be used within 18 months of the date that it is carried over.

32. If you are unable to use your full annual leave entitlement within an annual leave year due to being sick with Covid-19, or because you were required to keep working due to Covid-19, you may carry over up to 4 weeks of your entitlement for use within the following two annual leave years.

Holidays arranged before employment commences

33. If you have a holiday arranged before your employment commences, and the required time off is discussed during your recruitment process, we will approve this annual leave.

Ending employment

34. When you end your employment, you will receive pay for any remaining annual leave entitlement in your final pay. However, we may require you to use any remaining entitlement during your notice period.

35. If, when you end your employment, the amount of annual leave you have taken exceeds the entitlement that you have accrued to that date, we may subtract the amount in excess from your final pay.