Additional bank holidays, employment law and annual leave
Sponsored feature | Andrew Buckley, partner, Woodfines Solicitors
In November 2021, the government announced the UK would enjoy an additional bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The additional bank holiday will be on Friday, June 3 and – as the late May bank holiday has been moved to Thursday, June 2, many in the UK will enjoy a four-day weekend.
In April 2022, it was reported that the CBI, UK Hospitality and other well-known brands are calling for the additional bank holiday to be made permanent. In similar vein, in the run up to the 2019 General Election, the Labour Party announced that if elected, they would introduce a further four bank holidays a year – St David’s Day (March 1), St Patrick’s Day (March 17), St George’s Day (April 23) and St Andrew’s Day (November 20).
Employers and employees alike may wonder whether all employees are entitled to any additional bank holiday(s), whether permanent or one-off. The answer: not necessarily…
The law on annual leave is contained in the Working Time Regulations 1998. Regulations 13 and 13A of the WTR provide that workers (a wider category of people than employees) are entitled to 5.6 weeks of annual leave each year. For people that work five days a week, this means they are entitled to 28 days of annual leave each year.
The law does not entitle employees or workers to take leave on bank holidays in addition to their WTR entitlement. Consequently, the question of whether an individual is entitled to leave from work on a bank holiday depends upon what their contract says.
Many contracts of employment provide that individuals are entitled to 20 days of holiday plus bank holidays. In these circumstances, individuals will be entitled to benefit from any additional bank holiday the government announces. If the contract of employment has any further description around bank holidays, this will affect individuals’ entitlements. If the contract says the holiday entitlement is ‘20 days plus the usual eight bank holidays’, individuals working under that contract will not be entitled to the additional bank holiday. Similarly, if the contract does not mention bank holidays (for example, providing for 28 days of holiday a year), individuals working under that contract will not be entitled to the additional bank holiday.
Prudent employers will often draft their contracts of employment in such a way that bank holidays are not part of the contractual entitlement of employees or workers. There are good reasons for doing so:
- It avoids problems when employers have people that work part-time and avoids the need for a cumbersome pro-rata exercise
- It keeps the decision about bank holidays in the hands of the employer. The only way that individuals working under such a contract of employment will be entitled to additional bank holiday(s) is if the government specifically legislates to this effect.
Of course, any employer that has a contract of employment that does not allow employees the benefit of additional bank holidays would be wise to consider the position carefully before making any decisions. They should balance the cost of allowing an additional bank holiday against the damage to goodwill amongst members of staff in refusing it.
This writer, in particular, would feel unhappy to have to work on Friday, June 3, 2022...
Visit woodfines.co.uk.
Read more
New laws on mobile phone use while driving
The menopause and the need for better legal recognition
