Moray Council staff will get a day off to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee next year.
Members of the education, communities and organisational development committee granted employees June 3, 2022 as an additional day of annual leave, with those working on that date able to take it at another time.
The UK and Scottish governments have allocated an extra bank holiday for a national celebration to mark the monarch’s 70 year reign.
Instead of granting a public holiday, which would have cost the council £42,500 in extra pay, councillors took account of previous decisions when annual leave was granted for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in April 2011 and for the Queen’s diamond jubilee in June 2012.
Denise Whitworth, deputy chief executive for education, communities and organisational development, told committee officers they were waiting on a decision from the Scottish Government on whether June 3 would be declared an additional non-teaching day and schools could close.
She said: “This is not a decision we can take locally. The steer we’re waiting on nationally is whether the Scottish Government is likely to agree that rather than each individual authority writing to the Scottish Government.”
The committee was asked to delegate authority to officers to make a decision on whether schools could close once a national position on an extra non- teaching day was known.
Instead members asked for a report to go to the next meeting of the education, children’s services and leisure committee.
If an extra non-teaching day is not granted there will be an option of allocating an occasional holiday for Moray schools on June 3.