Q: I have heard that as a result of the way in which the Easter bank holidays fall in 2018 and 2019, I may breach my employees’ annual leave rights unless I provide them with an extra day’s annual leave. Is this correct and what do I need to know?
A: Bank holidays are generally welcomed by workers but can cause employers significant headaches. The way bank holidays fall during the year can impact workers’ annual leave and breach their holiday entitlements. Employers need to remain aware of this to review whether they need to provide extra holiday.
All workers are legally entitled to receive a minimum of 5.6 working weeks’ paid annual leave. This means full-time workers who work five days a week will receive a total of 28 days’ holiday each year.
Most employers will include bank holidays in their workers’ holiday entitlement so, with the usual eight bank holidays, this leaves the employee with 20 remaining days to take during the year.
This year, however, may cause problems because Easter falls early in England and Wales. Good Friday is on 30 March, with the Easter Monday bank holiday falling on 2 April. The early Easter bank holidays will affect workers with an April to March leave year. A holiday leave year running from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 will not include a Good Friday bank holiday because this falls in the previous year.
As a result, where the contractual entitlement is expressed as “20 days’ holiday plus bank holidays”, employees will only be contractually entitled to receive 27 days’ holiday in 2018 to 2019.
As a minimum, workers must receive 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday. Therefore, affected employees in England and Wales will need to receive a top-up to their holiday entitlement for the 2018 to 2019 leave year. Where the employer offers additional holiday leave – with all employees receiving 32 days’ annual leave each year, for example – no extra holiday is needed.
Employers with an April-March holiday year will also need to be aware that their workers could be contractually entitled to extra holiday in the 2017 to 2018 leave year. This is because the early Good Friday creates nine bank holidays within this period.
Where the contract states the employee is entitled to “20 days’ plus eight bank holidays” and lists the eight bank holidays, there will be no right to take the second Good Friday bank holiday.
However, if the contract says “20 days plus bank holidays” and does not mention which bank holidays, the worker can argue they are entitled to 29 days’ holiday.
Some contracts may have a cap of 28 days, and in these cases holiday leave will be unaffected.
Peter Done is managing director of law firm Peninsula
