How well do you know the employment law around bank holidays?

How well do you know the employment law around bank holidays?

Most of the UK has eight per year: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. However, Scotland has omissions and additions and Northern Ireland has two extra public holidays in relation to the bank holidays taken in England and Wales.

Here are 5 top tips for employers:

1.    There is no statutory right for employees to take bank holidays off work. Any right to time off depends on the terms of the employee’s contract of employment.
2.    When an employee works on a bank holiday, there is no statutory right to extra pay – for example “time and a half” or double pay. Any right to extra pay depends on the terms of the employee’s contract of employment.
3.    A part-time worker has the right not to be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time worker. This includes entitlement to bank holidays. The best practice – and safest – approach to part-time employees is to give them a pro-rated allowance of paid bank holidays, irrespective of whether or not they normally work on the days on which bank holidays fall.
4.    If an employee is required to work on bank holidays under the terms of their employment contract, the employee cannot refuse to work, even for religious reasons. However, employers should be aware that a refusal to grant Christian employees time off for any of the bank holidays with religious significance could amount to indirect religious discrimination if it places them at a particular disadvantage when compared with employees of other faiths, or non-religious employees.
5.    Be careful how contracts are worded! If they state that employees are entitled to “statutory entitlement plus bank holidays” this no longer denotes 20 days’ leave plus eight bank holidays. Following the increase in statutory minimum leave from four to 5.6 weeks in 2009, this wording would now grant 28 days’ holiday with eight bank holidays on top. Check your employment contracts to determine if this could be an issue. This style of contract wording can also mean employees receiving more bank holidays or fewer bank holidays than are required. This becomes an issue where the employer has a holiday year that runs from April to March and the timing of Easter weekend is such that the employee could receive as many as 10 bank holidays one year or as few as six bank holidays the next year.

If you have any questions about holiday entitlements or any other aspects of contracts of employment, please get in touch.