Leave for Senior Conductors

Hi All

Great to see so much advice on here for jobs and life on the railways.

Quick questions how does annual leave work for Senior Conductors. I am looking to apply at WM Trains. I am guessing that other TOC's may have similar procedures.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks

On GA we have 4 or 5 weeks depending on length of service. 1 week to be taken January to May, 2 weeks May to September, 1 week September to December. Add another week to one of the single weeks for those eligible for 5 weeks.

Will differ between TOCs but I believe it's a fairly standard set up.

Thanks! Are the weeks pre determined or of your own choice? i hear that some weeks are set and then a few days are allocated for here and there?

We're allocated a letter which then corresponds to a set of weeks on the roster, so one year you'll be line K the next J so on and so forth, but there are normally vacancy lines or colleagues willing to swap if needs be.

You'll also get lieu days which are floating days you can apply to take as and when you please, these replace bank holidays etc that you won't necessarily get off.

triggersaunt said:

Hi All

Great to see so much advice on here for jobs and life on the railways.

Quick questions how does annual leave work for Senior Conductors. I am looking to apply at WM Trains. I am guessing that other TOC's may have similar procedures.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks

Click to expand...

You get 4 weeks of holiday pre booked. (1wk in the spring, 2 for summer and 1wk for winter).
The pre booked holiday can generally be swapped with other colleagues. You won't get the same booked weeks every year as they are on a sliding roster.
In addition to pre booked holiday you have floating days. For 2018 we have 15 days. These can be used as and when as long as they are authorised by rosters.
You may need to use one or two days holiday for Xmas Day/Boxing day depending how your roster and links fall.
Holidays run from January to December.

Undoubtedly one of the worst parts of the job is the holiday allocation. As explained above, you get given your 4 weeks (4 days per week) which equates to 16 days, and usually 10 other floating days, 2 of which are handed back to cover xmas day and boxing day. As a new starter you will get the worst allocations (1st week in Jan etc) and there is always a scramble for the school holidays.

Your 4 block weeks are organised by the union, so if you are in with them there is a chance they will sort you a swap for the weeks you want.

Floating days are tricky, rostering department may allow only 1 or two off on a given day, so the chances of days around xmas etc are slim.

You may notice that 4x4 day block weeks and 10 floating days is 26, under the minimum for full time work, this is because you are working 4 day weeks as a conductor. If you work overtime or rest days you accrue further holiday, however, this is not taken as holiday, it is paid out in cash.

Thanks for this appreciate the replies.

Great information here thanks