Christmas Closedown

Click here for information about Christmas Closedown Considerations.

PLEASE NOTE: Sunday 25 December 2011 has now been gazetted as an additional public holiday by the NSW Government (gazetted on 18 March 2011).  This is a change to the previous Christmas closedown advice posted on 5 March 2011, and has now been reflected in the table below. 

2011/2012 and 2012/2013 Christmas Closedown Dates

Primary Objective of the Christmas Closedown

The primary objective of the Christmas closedown is to reduce leave accruals. In doing so the University does not wish to penalise staff with already low leave accruals or to prevent important research and operational work from being completed. Pro Vice-Chancellors and Heads of Division have discretion regarding exemptions to the closedown, and priority will be given to staff with low accruals when providing skeleton staffing in areas of the University, particularly where there are operational needs that must be met.

Leave Without Pay

The University will not force staff to take Leave Without Pay to cover the annual closedown. However, if a staff member has no Annual Leave but has significant Long Service Leave they will be encouraged to use the Long Service Leave.

Flextime and Time Off In Lieu (TOIL)

If a staff member has a large amount of Flextime and TOIL these may be used during the period in addition to Annual and Long Service Leave. Further information on flextime available from this link and TOIL from this link.

Hardship

Any staff that feel they may suffer undue hardship due to the closedown are encouraged to raise this issue with their immediate supervisor in the first instance. If concerns continue staff are welcome to contact their Human Resource Officer  for assistance.

Leave Applications

As the closedown will not affect all staff in the same way and staff will choose to access either Annual Leave or Long Service Leave (where applicable), staff must apply for leave taken over the annual closedown. HRonline applications should be submitted in the usual manner for this leave.

Out of Office Messages

Please ensure that an out of office message is placed on all phones and email addresses, along the lines of the following example:

"As part of University’s Christmas closedown, the ‘(name of work area)’ will be closed from [first day and date of closedown] to [last day and date of closedown] inclusive. If your call is urgent please phone [name of contact] on [full external phone number]. Otherwise I will return your call/message on [date of return]."

Further Information

Further information is available from your Human Resource Officer, Human Resource Services.