Staff Matters

First things first, there is, of course, no statutory entitlement for employees to take paid annual leave on a statutory or public bank holiday. The only statutory obligation in relation to holiday is as set down in the Working Time Regulations 1998, which provides that employees must receive a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid holiday each leave year.

Whether there is a legal obligation to pay employees for bank and public holidays depends on the wording of each employee’s employment contract.

Some contracts may simply say that the employee will receive four weeks’ annual holiday per year plus bank and public holidays (or inclusive of bank holidays) – sometimes referred to as statutory days. If this is the case, then any newly declared bank holidays, such as a royal wedding, may well be included within this clause.

Alternatively, other contracts may simply say the employee is entitled to 5.6 weeks of annual holiday inclusive of bank and public holidays, in which case, if the employee wishes to take leave on the additional bank holiday, it will have to come out of his or her “allowance”.

If, however, the contract is more specifically drafted and it refers to each bank or public holiday by name (for example, Christmas Day, Good Friday and so on), the extra bank holiday will not be provided for in the contract and so it will be up to the employer to make a decision about that day – whether to trade or not and whether the day off will be paid or unpaid.

Adverse reaction

Employers can, of course, decide to be generous and give the additional bank holiday in 2011 even if the contract does not provide for it. If they decide not to allow employees the additional day, they need to consider and be prepared for potential adverse employee relations or publicity implications.

Employers need to ensure that they do not unlawfully discriminate against workers because of one of the protected characteristics, or because of their part-time status.

The additional bank holiday falls between Easter and May Day – meaning that if employees are entitled to bank holidays, a four-day week will be followed by a threeday one and then another four-day week. It is, therefore, advisable to give advance consideration to any operational issues.

Business as usual

In the event that organisations decide it will be “business as usual” on April 29, but employees can elect to book a day’s leave, employers should review business needs and decide in advance how many employees can be absent on this day. Any requests for holiday should be dealt with normally on a first come, first served basis.

Conversely, should a business wish to close down for the day, where employees are not entitled to bank holidays and do not wish to take one of their leave days, the employer can – under the Working Time Regulations 1998 – serve the employee with no less than two days’ notice, forcing him or her to take a day’s annual leave on that date.

In practice, rather than leaving it to the last minute, it would be sensible for employers to set out any compulsory shut-down periods, including this additional day at the start of the leave year.