It is only ever a few weeks until the next ‘Bank Holiday’. How much do you know about employment law and bank holidays?
England has eight permanent bank holidays per year:
• New Year's Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Early May
• Spring Bank Holiday (late May)
• Late Summer (late August)
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
And here are five things that you need to know:
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 contract of employment.
2. When an employee works on a bank holiday, there is no statutory right to additional pay, for example time and a half or double time. Any right to additional pay depends on the terms of the contract of employment.
3. For part time employees, the best (and safest) approach to calculating bank holidays 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. Where a bank holiday is aligned to a Christian festival such as Easter or Christmas, there is no requirement to allow additional time off for employees who practise religions other than Christianity. Doing this would result in more favourable treatment for certain religious groups and this would amount to unlawful direct discrimination.
5. Contractual holiday entitlement of “statutory entitlement plus bank holidays” used to denote 20 days’ leave plus eight bank holidays. Following the increase in statutory minimum leave from four to 5.6 weeks, this is no longer the case. Statutory minimum leave is now 28 days’ holiday inclusive of the eight bank holidays.
If you have any questions concerning bank holidays and the law, please contact Hannah on 01404 42359 or email hannah@hradvanage.co.uk .
