As many of you are aware, the 8th May 2023 will be yet another bank holiday in the UK to mark King Charles III’s Coronation. However, are all employees automatically entitled to the extra day off? Here’s what you need to know:
Essentially, UK law requires that all full time employees are entitled to a minimum of 28 days (or 5.6 weeks) of annual leave in each holiday year. A business can determine when that leave year should commence and end.
Employees don’t have an automatic right to the extra day off. Whether or not an employee has the right to the extra day off will depend entirely on the exact wording of their employment contract. Their contract could be drafted in one of the following three ways: One may simply state that employees are entitled to statutory holiday which is already inclusive of public holidays (i.e. 5.6 weeks inclusive of public holidays). In this case, you can require employees to work on 8 May 2023 in the usual way.
Alternatively, your contract or policies may state that the employee is entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday plus the usual 8 public holidays which are recognised in England and Wales. In this case, you can adopt the position that the 8 May 2023 holiday is not one of the 8 standard public holidays, in which case the employee can be required to work.
However, if the contract states that the employee is entitled to all public holidays or does not limit this to the ‘usual’ bank holidays, in addition to 5.6 weeks’ leave, the employee could claim 8 May 2023 as an additional holiday.
Regardless of the technical entitlement to the extra day off in a contract, many employers will still offer staff the day off. If they do so however, employers should always communicate this message clearly (explaining that this is a unique, one-off occasion) and to apply consistency.
For further advice on any employment law related enquiry, do contact our specialist team on 01792 468684 or email enquiries@pgmsolicitors.co.uk.
