Additional Jubilee Bank Holiday – What this means to employers….
Posted on May 21 in Latest News by JennyIt has been announced that Tuesday 5 June 2012 will be a bank holiday to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
In addition, the spring bank holiday, which usually falls on the last Monday in May, will be put back to Monday 4 June creating a four day weekend during which there will be various celebrations to mark the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.
The news has been greeted with delight by employees – however it is likely to create an organisational and financial headache for many businesses.
While most people have welcomed the prospect of an extra holiday to celebrate this important national event employees should not assume that they will inevitably benefit.There has always been confusion about the status of bank holidays. It is important to note that employees do not have an automatic right to paid leave on bank holidays. Although many employers do close down on such days or offer employees who work, extra pay or a day off in lieu, they are not required to do so.
Any right to time off or extra pay for working on a bank holiday depends on the terms of the contract of employment.
The only legal obligation on an employer is to allow their workers the minimum annual leave laid down in the Working Time Regulations 1998 (28 days for a full-time worker).
Where an employment contract provides for “twenty days holiday plus bank holidays” then an employee will be entitled to take Tuesday 5th June in addition to the usual eight bank holidays.
Where the employment contract simply states that the employee is entitled to “twenty eight days holiday per year” there will be no such contractual entitlement.
An employer with such a holiday clause may decide to close down on the 5th June 2012 but require employees to take the day out of their annual holiday allowance.
Please contact the office to establish the facts about your contractual obligations.