There are normally eight bank holidays a year in England and Wales, nine in Scotland, and 10 in Northern Ireland. The Working Time Regulations 1998 do not differentiate between bank holidays and other days and do not prevent employers from including them in the 28-day minimum annual leave entitlement.
1. King’s coronation: additional bank holiday declared
The government has confirmed that there will be an additional bank holiday on Monday 8 May 2023 to celebrate King Charles’ coronation, which takes place two days earlier. However, an employer’s workforce does not automatically have the right to take the day off work.
To some extent the contract of employment determines the right to the day off. Where the contract entitles employees to take leave on “all bank and public holidays”, the employer will be required to grant the extra day as leave.
However, if the contract entitles the employee to a certain number of days ‘plus eight bank holidays’ or ‘the usual bank holidays’ the employer is not contractually obliged to grant the extra day as leave. However, it may choose to do so as a goodwill gesture to employees, particularly given the historical significance of the event.
2. No automatic right to time off on bank holidays
There is no statutory right for employees to take bank holidays off work. Any right to time off depends on the terms of the employee’s contract of employment.
If an employee does not have the contractual right to time off on public holidays but refuses to attend work, the employer can treat this as a disciplinary issue.
If the contract provides that the employee is entitled to take bank holidays as annual leave, the employer cannot insist that the employee works. What it could do is ask them to work the bank holiday in return for a day in lieu to be taken at another time or increase the payment for the day as an incentive.
3. No statutory right to extra pay for working on bank holidays
There is no statutory right to extra pay, for example time and a half or double time, when an employee works on a bank holiday. Any right to extra pay depends on the terms of the employee’s contract of employment which should stipulate the rate of pay for working on a public holiday. If the contract is silent then there is no right to a higher rate than normal for working on a bank holiday. The only exception being if employees have been paid an enhanced rate for working bank holidays in the past, it may be that it has become a contractual entitlement.
4. Part-time employees need special bank holiday arrangements
Because most bank holidays fall on a Monday or Friday, part-time employees who do not work on these days could be entitled to proportionately fewer days off compared with full-time employees, depending on shift patterns and annual leave arrangements within the organisation.
Employers must ensure that all employees have at least the statutory minimum annual leave entitlement and that part-time employees are not treated less favourably than full-time employees. To avoid a complaint of less favourable treatment, part-time employees must be provided with a pro-rated bank holiday entitlement on top of their pro-rated holiday entitlement.
5. Look out for “20 days’ holiday, plus bank holidays” in contracts
Where the holiday year runs from 1 April to 31 March and the Easter weekend straddles March and April, this style of wording in contracts of employment can mean employees receiving more or fewer bank holidays than are required. The next time this will be an issue for contracts that use such wording will be in 2024, when Good Friday is 29 March and Easter Monday is 1 April. This means that the 2023/24 holiday year would have 10 public holidays and 2024/25 would only have seven.
ACTION: Ensure the extra bank holiday is included in your employees’ entitlement for 2023 at the start of the year!
For any advice email nicola.goodridge@goodhr.co.uk or call +44 7917 878384
