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Employee Benefits

BHA Benefits

None of us know what the future holds, but you can be sure that peace of mind and financial security for our staff is very important to us. We would also like to ensure that staff have a healthy work life balance whilst in our employment. At BHA we currently have the following benefits available to all our staff:

• Yearly inflationary rise in line with the National Joint Council Salary Scales

• 25 days Annual Leave pro rata plus Bank Holidays. Increased to 30 days Annual Leave pro rata plus Bank Holidays after 5 years continuous service

• Time off in lieu for hours worked over the contractual agreement.

• Sick Pay: After the successful completion of your probationary period:

(a) in your first year of continuous service full pay for 1 month, then half pay for 1 month
(b) in your second year of continuous service full pay for 2 months, then half pay for 1 month
(c) after 2 complete years of continuous service full pay for 3 months, then half pay for 1 month.

• Payment Protection Plan – after 13 weeks of illness, qualifying staff may apply to our insurers to receive up to 75% of salary for a period of up to 2 years.

• Group Personal Pension Scheme: You are entitled to join a non-contributory Stakeholder Pension within three months of commencing employment with the Agency. The Agency will start contributing towards a Group Personal Pension Scheme (GPP) for you after successful completion of your probationary period with BHA. After successful completion of the probationary period, BHA will contribute to the GPP monthly on your behalf at a rate of 5 per cent of your monthly basic pay. If you choose to join you will also be required to contribute towards the GPP at a rate of 5 per cent of your monthly basic pay which will be deducted monthly from your pay and paid to the GPP by BHA.

• Employee Assistance Programme – available to staff and their families 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The EAP provides advice on a number of areas. Full details are available on the intranet.

• Flexible Working Policy to enable parents/carers to apply for flexible working options.

• Parental Leave Policy: Parents can use it to spend more time with children and strike a better balance between their work and family commitments.

• Carers Leave Policy: Carers Leave allows employees to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with certain unexpected or sudden emergencies and to make any necessary longer term arrangements.

• Compassionate Leave: To enable employees to take reasonable paid time off in the unfortunate event of a death occurring in their immediate family.

• Religious Holidays: BHA will always respect an employee’s wish to take part of their annual leave entitlement on specific religious festival days and we will do our utmost to ensure that we can meet these requests.

• Sabbatical Leave: Sabbatical leave is available for any of the activities listed below:

1. To achieve a personal goal such as study or competing in a sporting event
2. For extensive travel or to undertake some voluntary (unpaid) work
3. To fulfill reserve force ‘call up’ notice

Staff may apply for consideration to take a sabbatical for a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 1 year in certain circumstances.

• Unpaid Leave: Occasionally employees may need time off from work for personal reasons. BHA will do our utmost to ensure that we can meet these requests.

• Training and development: BHA aims to ensure training and staff development is offered in an equitable way and that all parties should be committed and involved in identifying training and development needs including board members, trustees, management, staff and volunteers. Costs of training, including registration fees, will be dependent upon the nature of course and duration of study. In most cases BHA will agree to pay for all training undertaken by staff. In some instances however, where staff would like to study for degrees or Diploma’s an agreement will be reached between the individual undertaking the training and the management. Any agreement reached between the individual and BHA might include such stipulations as:

 Right of release (i.e. day release from work)
 Payment of costs between BHA and the individual (where necessary)
 Minimum length of stay following completion of training

Please read about our Employee Assistance Programme