Bank Holidays
Half of the eight annual bank holidays for England occur during April and May. So here’s Mint HR’s TOP TIPS for employers based on questions we regularly get asked by our clients:
- A full-time worker is entitled to the standard bank holidays for their country on top of their annual leave allowance. For England this is eight per year.
- To avoid entitlement disputes, ensure employment contracts define whether the stated annual leave amount is “inclusive of” or “plus” bank holidays.
- You are entitled to ask someone to work a bank holiday and there is no legal obligation to pay them an increased rate (unless stated in their contract), but they will be entitled to a day in lieu.
- If your business closes on a bank holiday, you are entitled to insist all employees use their allowance on the day and do not work.
- If your business does operate during holidays, use a fair rota system to ensure the same employees are not always working them.
- If you have a new starter joining midway through your holiday year, remember to calculate their leave entitlement for that year with only the bank holidays that fall during their employment with you.
And now for the one that frequently confuses folk…
- Part-time workers are entitled to the same benefits as full-time employees but on a pro-rata basis according to the number of hours/days they work.
- Therefore, they also accrue a pro-rata number of bank holidays.
- E.g. If they work 4 days a week, they are entitled to 4/5 of the 8 annual bank holidays, which is 6.4 days (rounded up to 6.5).
- If they do not work on the day a particular bank holiday falls, then they can use this allowance at another time.
