Member Article

Bank Holiday entitlement

With Gren Irving of Business Link Tyne and Wear

Next month (April) sees the first of three months in the year in which there are two public Holidays (May and December being the others). Bank Holidays were first introduced by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, which designated four holidays in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and five in Scotland. Christmas Day and Good Friday were already traditional days of rest and Christian worship and did not need to be included in the act. We now have eight public holidays.

For employees fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of the long weekends that these afford, they are a welcome date on the calendar. But for many businesses, especially manufacturing, public holidays (which can also include common law holidays and holidays by royal announcement as well as Bank Holidays) can cause major headaches unless you have the appropriate employee contracts in place to prevent this.

Most workers, whether part-time or full-time, are legally entitled to four weeks’ paid annual leave. Anything above that may be agreed as part of their contract. This must set out leave and holiday pay entitlements – including any times that you set when workers must take their leave eg for a Christmas shutdown.

Contrary to popular belief, workers have no statutory right to be off work on public holidays. However, in many parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Bank Holidays have become widely observed and, as a result, employees’ terms and conditions of employment commonly include entitlement to a holiday on those days. It is worth remembering though that the law does not entitle workers who do stay at home to be paid. This is left to individual businesses to agree with their workers. And, while many do pay, the days can be included in the worker’s four week minimum leave entitlement.

That may change in the near future though as the Government proposed in its 2005 election manifesto that, during its third term in office, it would make the entitlement to four weeks annual leave be in additional to time equivalent to bank holidays. As with the existing entitlement this would be on a pro-rata basis for those working part time. The whole of a worker’s statutory leave entitlement exists from the beginning of each leave year and it is up to you to decide when this starts. In the absence of written leave arrangements, it will commence either on the date a worker’s employment begins (if the worker started work after 1 October 1998) or on 1 October if they started on or before then. If a worker’s employment ends, he or she has a right to be paid for the leave time due and not taken.

For Business Link services in your local area, call 0845 600 9006 or visit the website www.businesslink.gov.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .