A period of suspension should not change the normal position with regard to holiday and this should be clearly stated in the employee’s contract of employment or in the staff handbook.

Therefore, provided that the annual leave was booked and approved in line with the employer’s holiday procedure, a suspended employee will still be entitled to take their annual leave.  In line with best practice, employers should notify, in writing, any employee who is being suspended. The content of this letter should set out details of the suspension and deal with the periods of annual leave during suspension. As suspensions are usually to enable an employer to investigate instances of misconduct, the employer should not schedule any grievance or disciplinary meetings or hearings on the dates that the suspended employee is on annual leave.

If an employee wishes to take annual leave during suspension but has not requested any holidays, the employer’s normal procedure for requesting leave would apply.