Is Your Business Ready For The Extra Bank Holiday In 2022?

Extra bank holiday 2022

Are your employees entitled to paid time off work for the additional Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday in June 2022? Timms Employment Law Solicitor, Emma Spandrzyk discusses this in her latest blog…

With the announcement of an extra bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, this year we shall see the usual late May bank holiday being moved forward to 2 June 2022. The additional one-off bank holiday will fall on the 3 June 2022.

As employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday, the legal position is that your staff may not actually be eligible to benefit from the extra day off at all. As a business, you should think about how you will approach this matter with your staff so that you are ready for any questions around the expectation of extra paid leave.

Who Will Get The Day Off?

This is largely dependent on the wording set out in your employee’s employment contract. If the contract states that your employee is entitled to a number of days holiday per year in addition to bank holidays, then that employee will be entitled to the extra paid day’s leave.

If the contract states that the employee is entitled to a set number of days leave inclusive of bank holidays or a number of days in addition to the usual eight UK bank holidays, then it will be at your discretion whether to give your staff the additional paid bank holiday.

What Should I Do?

If the contract makes it clear that your staff are entitled to the extra day’s leave, you should honour this and allow for an additional paid day’s leave.

Where there is no contractual right to the additional leave, it is worth considering the effect that declining a request could have on employee relations. Granting the additional leave could serve as a gesture of goodwill and be awarded as recognition of good service following a difficult two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Being generous at this stage can help avoid issues arising in the form of disgruntled employees!

You may also wish to consider past precedents and in particular, what your position was in relation to the additional bank holiday in April 2011, which was introduced to celebrate the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. If the additional leave was granted then, there will be some expectation from staff that the same will apply this time around.

Need Assistance?

If you need any assistance with this matter and you are unclear on whether your staff should receive an extra bank holiday this year, please contact me on 01530 564498 or via email at e.spandrzyk@timms-law.com  For details of our employment law services visit here.

 

Emma Spandrzyk

February 2022

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