Allocating holidays fairly across the workforce can often be a difficult and controversial task for managers, and it is never possible to please everyone. As in 2011, an additional bank holiday has been declared for this year creating a four-day weekend, which may lead to increased holiday requests around that time. In order to avoid as much confusion and frustration as possible, it is best to plan in advance how the extra day will be treated, inform staff of your policy on leave requests over the extended weekend and apply the rules consistently and fairly, for both full and part-time workers.
As bank holidays are classed as normal working days, an employer may opt, as many will, to keep the business open and staff due to work on that particular day will be expected to report for work as normal. If an employee wishes to take the day off, they can request a day’s paid holiday which they should deduct from their total annual allowance, although there is of course no obligation on the employer to grant it should business needs require the employee to be present.
To check whether payment must be made for the additional Diamond Jubilee holiday, employers should refer to their contracts of employment to check the wording used around the granting of bank or public holidays. For example, if the contract states that employees are entitled to 20 days’ paid annual leave plus all bank holidays, employees will be entitled to receive payment for any additional bank holidays which may be declared from time to time (although there is no entitlement to take the extra day on the bank holiday itself if the employer requires the employee to work). However, if the contract clearly states that holiday allowance is 20 days plus the 8 or usual bank holidays, there will be no entitlement to be paid for any additional bank holidays.
Holidays and bank holidays can be complex at any time with particular regard to part-time staff, and the granting of extra bank holidays only adds to the confusion. The fairest way of allocating holidays and bank holidays to part-timers is to give them a pro-rata amount of the full-time allowance. For example, if a full-time employee is entitled to 20 days’ holiday plus the 8 normal bank holidays per year, for someone who works 2.5 days per week, they would be entitled to receive 10 days plus 4 of the usual bank holidays. As in 2011 and 2012 where a full-timer may be eligible to receive an additional bank holiday, then the same part-timer should receive an extra 0.5 day for that particular year.
