Bank Holidays: five things employers need to know

The UK has eight permanent bank holidays per year: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

But how much do you as an employer know about employment law concerning bank holidays? Here are five things you really need to know:

1. There is no statutory right for employees to take bank holidays off work. Any right to time off depends on the terms of the employmee's contract of employment. Read more

2. When an employee works on a bank holiday, there is no statutory right to extra pay – for example time and a half or double time. Any right to extra pay depends on the terms of the employee's contract of employment. Read more

3. A part-time worker has the right not to be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time worker. This includes entitlement to bank holidays.The best practice – and safest – approach to part-time employees is to give them a pro rated allowance of paid bank holidays, irrespective of whether or not they normally work on the days on which bank holidays fall. Read more

4. If an employee is required to work on bank holidays under the terms of their employment contract, the employee cannot refuse to work, even for religious reasons. However, employers should be aware that a refusal to grant Christian employees time off for any of the bank holidays with religious significance could amount to indirect religious discrimination if it places them at a particular disadvantage when compared with employees of other faiths, or non-religious employees. Read more

5. If employers have worded contracts to say that employees are entitled to “statutory entitlement plus bank holidays” this no longer denotes 20 days’ leave plus eight bank holidays. Following the increase in statutory minimum leave from four to 5.6 weeks, this will grant 28 days’ holiday with eight bank holidays on top. Check your employment contracts to determine if this could be an issue. Read more

For full guidance on the above – along with further bank holiday questions – see bank holidays in XpertHR's FAQs section.