Rota, Availability and Annual Leave Policy

Effective rota planning is essential to ensuring that Gelateria Danieli is appropriately staffed, operates efficiently and provides a consistently high standard of service.

This policy explains how employees should:

  • provide their availability;
  • request annual leave;
  • check their allocated shifts; and
  • request changes

The policy applies to all employees and workers, including those engaged under zero-hours arrangements.

Where an individual is engaged under a zero-hours contract, nothing in this policy creates an obligation on the Company to offer work or on the individual to accept work offered. However, anyone who wishes to be considered for shifts must provide their availability in accordance with this policy.

Providing Availability

Employees and workers who wish to be considered for shifts must ensure that their availability and any periods of non-availability are accurately recorded in RotaCloud.

Availability for the following month must be entered into RotaCloud by the first day of each month, for the following month.

For example:

  • Availability for October must be submitted by 01 September.
  • Availability for November must be submitted by 01 October.

The Company will prepare rotas using the information available in RotaCloud at the relevant deadline.

Submitting availability means that the individual is available to be considered for work during the times identified. It does not guarantee that any particular number of shifts or hours will be offered.

Missing or Late Availability

Where availability is not submitted by the required deadline, is incomplete or is inaccurate, the Company may be unable to allocate shifts to that individual for the relevant rota period.

This may result in fewer shifts, or no shifts, being offered during that month.

Availability submitted after the deadline will only be considered where operationally possible. The Company cannot guarantee that late availability or changes will be accommodated once rota planning has begun.

This is not intended to penalise anyone for declining work. It reflects the practical need to prepare rotas using the information available at the time.

Changes to Availability

Once the monthly deadline has passed, availability should only be changed where there is a genuine reason.

Any requested change should be raised with a manager as soon as possible. Changes will be considered fairly but may be declined where:

  • the rota has already been prepared or published;
  • cover cannot reasonably be arranged;
  • the change would leave the business inadequately staffed; or
  • accommodating the change would place unreasonable pressure on other team members.

Updating RotaCloud after the deadline does not automatically change or cancel an allocated or accepted shift.

Offered and Accepted Shifts

Zero-hours workers are not required to accept shifts offered by the Company.

However, once a shift has been accepted, the individual is expected to attend and work the agreed shift unless:

  • the Company agrees to release them from it;
  • an approved shift swap is arranged; or
  • they are unable to attend for a genuine reason, such as sickness or an emergency.

Anyone unable to attend an accepted or allocated shift must notify their manager as soon as possible and follow the appropriate absence-reporting procedure.

A failure to attend an accepted shift without notifying the Company may be addressed under the appropriate Company procedure.

Annual Leave

Availability and annual leave are separate processes.

Recording yourself as unavailable in RotaCloud does not constitute an annual leave request and does not guarantee that a period of leave will be approved.

All annual leave requests must be submitted separately through RotaCloud and are subject to management approval.

The following notice requirements apply:

  • For annual leave of one week or more, requests must be submitted at least four weeks in advance.
  • For annual leave of less than one week, requests must be submitted at least two weeks in advance.

Requests made with less notice may be considered but cannot be guaranteed.

No more than two members of staff may ordinarily be on annual leave at the same time. This is without exception as we simply cannot foresee every situation, such as staff sickness and absence, that may arise.

Annual leave should not be booked or paid for until the request has been formally approved.

Holiday entitlement and holiday pay will be calculated and provided in accordance with the individual’s contractual arrangements.

Rota Publication

The Company will aim to publish rotas as far in advance as reasonably practicable.

Employees and workers are responsible for regularly checking RotaCloud and reviewing any shifts that have been allocated or offered to them.

Any concerns or suspected errors should be raised with a manager as soon as possible.

Operational requirements may occasionally mean that the Company needs to request changes to a published rota. Where this happens, the Company will provide as much notice as reasonably practicable and will discuss the proposed change with the affected individual.

For zero-hours workers, any additional or changed shift remains subject to acceptance unless it has already been agreed.

Failure to Follow the Policy

Where an individual does not provide their availability by the deadline, the Company may be unable to consider them when preparing the rota.

For employees with guaranteed contractual hours, repeated failure to provide accurate availability or follow reasonable rota procedures may be addressed through the appropriate Company procedure.

For zero-hours workers, the Company will not take action simply because they have declined an offered shift. However, concerns such as repeatedly failing to attend accepted shifts, failing to notify the Company of an absence or providing deliberately inaccurate information may be addressed through the appropriate procedure.

Other Work

Zero-hours workers are permitted to work for other organisations.

However, individuals must continue to comply with their obligations concerning confidentiality, conflicts of interest, working time and the attendance of any shifts they have already accepted.

last updated 3rd august 2026

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