Following the sad death of Her Majesty The Queen, the United Kingdom is in a period of mourning which will continue until the State Funeral on 19 September at 11 am. The day of the State Funeral has been designated as a bank holiday. The frequently asked questions below are to outline how the University will operate during this period.
Updated 12:17 12/09/2022
During the period of national mourning the University will continue to operate as usual.
The day of the State Funeral is a bank holiday. As far as operationally possible, the University will close. If you are normally required to attend work on this day, if your role allows, you will not be required to attend. Some business critical operations will continue.
Please see specific FAQs about operations on the day of the State Funeral.
During the period of national mourning, the University will continue to operate as usual. If you have an event planned via Event Durham, you should have received an email from them with some guidance as follows:
If you have an event booked on the day of the State Funeral, please see separate FAQ.
We would strongly encourage that, where possible, events planned for the day of the State Funeral be postponed. We do however appreciate that this may not always be possible.
If your event cannot reasonably be postponed, we would ask that you consider amending the itinerary to avoid the time that the State Funeral is taking place. The State Funeral is due to start at 11am. Organisers should consider carefully any appropriate changes to content or tone in line with the prevailing public mood and the context in which your event is taking place, to ensure it is delivered in a respectful and appropriate way. You may also wish to observe a minute’s silence at the start of the event and to consider the attire of the organisers.
If the event is going ahead on the day of the State Funeral and delegates/attendees have paid, you should consider offering refunds to attendees who would prefer to cancel.
If your event is proceeding and it has been organised via Event Durham, please let your Event Durham contact know as soon as possible.
The day of the State Funeral has been designated a bank holiday. As far as operationally possible, the University will close. If you are normally required to attend work on this day, if your role allows, you will not be required to attend.
However, some operations of the University must continue on the day of the State Funeral and therefore some colleagues will be required to work. Managers will be asked to minimise the number of colleagues who are working on site.
Operational managers will determine the minimum necessary staffing level in their area. There may be local discussions to help managers take into account individual preferences regarding working on the day of the State Funeral, in those areas where some colleagues must work in order to provide business critical services.
Colleagues who have to work on the day of the State Funeral will receive the relevant rate of pay for working on a public holiday as provided in their terms and conditions of employment.
Where your role allows, and with the agreement of your manager, you can stop work to watch some or all of the broadcast of the State Funeral. You may also discuss with your manager whether it would be possible to change your start/finish time, so that you can watch the State Funeral before or after work.
No. Unless you are a colleague who is required to work to maintain business critical services, you will not be entitled to work.
Any staff who have booked holiday on the day of the State Funeral will no longer need to use their allowance for this date and should liaise with their line manager to agree an alternative date, as per their usual departmental holiday booking processes.
If you work part-time and do not work on a Monday your annual leave will be appropriately adjusted to account for the additional bank holiday for the State Funeral. Adjustments will also be made for those absent on pre-agreed paid leave such as maternity leave.
If you would usually submit a request for annual leave for a bank holiday, you will need to do so if you would ordinarily have been at work on this day.
If you have accrued the State Funeral bank holiday to be taken at another time, any additional leave must be taken before the end of the calendar leave year and cannot be carried over. Requests for leave should be agreed locally being mindful of business needs. For those on term time only contracts where leave is taken outside of term time, an additional payment to reflect this will be made in October payroll.
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