Good evening,
Since the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic there have been fewer opportunities to take holiday. I work for a small company that provides high end dairy products and plays a key role in supporting around 50 small farms across the UK. As a business we were initially concerned that the pandemic may have a devastating effect on us. Thanks to a combination of good management, graft from the entire staff, and overwhelming support from existing and new customers, we managed to fare quite well throughout this crisis, achieving revenues strong enough to see us through (so far) and looking to the future. Not everyone has been so lucky and that leads me to my thinking.
Two things have occurred to me:
1) Not nearly all food and hospitality businesses have fared so well.
2) I have taken almost no holiday except to look after my son and am at risk of most of my holiday expiring unused by the end of March. Any I have taken will have been for child care or staying home for rest.
I’m an individual and only a single example. I may not be totally representative of my industry or other industries, but one thing I am sure of is that many in the British hospitality and tourism industry have suffered greatly. This represents a part of the economy, the workforce, and the pride of Britain that is struggling immensely and in dire need of help, thus my proposal, a government buyback scheme for unused holiday.
The government has been generous in providing and extending furlough schemes and other incentives to keep the potentially unemployed from actually becoming fully unemployed. I propose the government offers a graduated scheme of buying back unused holiday from any employee who has not depleted their yearly allotment before it expires. This would include any salaried or hourly rate employee (to protect the coffer, this should be capped or graduated at the higher earning stages).
My recommendation would be to reimburse the day rate, often multiple days, for hourly workers or equivalent day rate for salaried employees so that they may use that money for holiday within the UK. The payment would come IN THE FORM OF A VOUCHER TO BE SPENT ON HOLIDAY AT A UK HOTEL (or similar) OR HOSPITALY BUSINESS. This is not a cash payment, but is rather a scheme that allows people employed within the UK to redeem the value of their unused holidays and spend that money within the struggling UK hospitality industry.
Whilst the government has done much to offer support, it’s been a very hard year for many of us. For those of us who have either worked non-stop or on the flipside, feared for the very survival of our employers, it’s been pretty brutal. Supporting holiday for the weary and supporting holiday for those whose jobs rely on the holiday of others will not only be popular, but will provide a massive boost to may local economies (it’s also probably a good idea to offer some support for those who have become unemployed due to the crisis).
It’s not a fix for this entire situation, but this scheme would be popular, appreciated by companies which are regretfully allowing their employee’s holidays to expire unused, gratefully appreciated by employees who have felt the need to turn up every day to protect their jobs and haven’t had many options to travel anyway, and even more appreciated by one of the industries that has suffered the most uncertainty and pain throughout the pandemic, the travel and hospitality industry that is part of the nation’s pride.
I imagine you’re filled to the brim with good and well thought out ideas. Thanks for reading my submission and if you’d like to speak further, please do be in touch. I’d love to win the prize, but am more interested in pursuing the support of my industry and others around me.
Kind regards and thanks for looking,
Nathaniel Peck
302-11