We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of HM The Queen and our deepest condolences go to HM The King and the Royal Family. The State Funeral will take place on Monday 19th September 2022 which has been announced as a Bank Holiday.
In UK Employment Law what happens when an additional Bank Holiday is announced is not as straight-forward as employers would hope, as it depends entirely on how the contracts of employment are drafted.
Firstly, an employer needs to decide if they are staying open or closed and then consider the wording of the contracts of employment.
The business decides to close
There is no obligation on businesses to close and there is no obligation to stay open. A decision should be made and communicated as soon as possible. Then one of the following 3 scenarios will apply:
- If your contracts say, “Your holiday entitlement is X hours/days/weeks including Bank Holidays” i.e. where the total entitlement is listed and it doesn’t separate out bank holidays. The employer does not need to give any additional days off and can give the necessary notice to require employees to use a day of their annual leave entitlement. You won’t need to give employees extra days to use. You can choose to, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
- If your contracts say, “Your holiday entitlement is X hours/days/weeks plus 8 Bank Holidays” i.e., where a specific number of bank holidays is listed. As with the above, the employer does not need to give any additional days off and can give the necessary notice to require employees to use a day of their annual leave entitlement. You won’t need to give employees extra days to use. You can choose to, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
- If your contracts say, “Your holiday entitlement is X hours/days/weeks plus Bank Holidays” i.e. where bank holidays are separated as an additional entitlement but there is no limit on the additional entitlement. Then the employees are entitled to an additional day off, with pay. It should not be deducted from the remainder of their annual leave entitlement and is, in essence, an extra day off for them.
The business decides to stay open
Again, a decision should be made and communicated as soon as possible. Then one of the following 3 scenarios will apply:
- If your contracts say, “Your holiday entitlement is X hours/days/weeks including Bank Holidays” i.e., where the total entitlement is listed, and it doesn’t separate out bank holidays. The employer does not need to give any additional days off or an extra day off in lieu. You can choose to, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
- If your contracts say, “Your holiday entitlement is X hours/days/weeks plus 8 Bank Holidays” i.e., where a specific number of bank holidays is listed. As with the above, the employer does not need to give any additional days off or an extra day off in lieu. You can choose to, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
- If your contracts say, “Your holiday entitlement is X hours/days/weeks plus Bank Holidays” i.e., where bank holidays are separated as an additional entitlement but there is no limit on the additional entitlement. Then the employees are entitled to an additional day off with pay or a day off in lieu.
For further advice on Human Resources management please contact us on 01981 590514 or visit Human Resources | CXCS
