Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

Are employees entitled to extra pay for working on bank holidays? What does an employer do if an employee refuses to work on a bank holiday? How should bank holidays be managed for part-time employees? We explain how to deal with some of the most common issues public holidays can raise.

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 5.6-week minimum annual leave entitlement.

Some employers grant their employees more annual leave than that set by the Working Time Regulations.

1. 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. The employer should comply with its own policy for managing disciplinary issues as well as the “Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures”.

If the contract provides that the employee is entitled to take bank holidays as annual leave, the employer cannot insist that the employee works and cannot take any form of disciplinary action. The employer could seek the employee’s written agreement to work on the bank holiday in return for a day in lieu to be taken at some other time, or it could consider increasing the payment for the day as an incentive.

Can employees be required to work on bank holidays?

How to deal with an employee who goes ahead with a holiday when annual leave has not been authorised

2. 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.

Employers should stipulate the rate of pay for working on a public holiday in their written terms and conditions of employment. There is no right for employees to be paid a higher rate than normal for working on a bank holiday, unless this is provided for in the contract.

In the absence of anything in writing, an employee’s rights relating to public holidays depend either on what has been verbally agreed or on custom and practice. For example, if employees have been paid an enhanced rate for working public holidays in the past, it may be that this has become a contractual entitlement.

Is an employee who is required to work on bank holidays entitled to extra pay?

If an employee is on sickness absence during a bank holiday, are they entitled to be paid or to receive additional time off in lieu?

3. 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, many employers provide part-time employees with a pro-rated public holiday entitlement.

While there may be no arrangement that will have entirely fair results for all employees whatever their working pattern, one option is to calculate pro-rated bank holiday entitlement according to the number of hours that the part-time employee works, irrespective of whether or not they work on the days on which public holidays fall.

If a part-time or shift-working employee is not scheduled to work on a bank holiday, are they entitled to an additional day’s holiday?

If an employer provides for pro rata bank holiday entitlement for part-time employees, how should it calculate this?

4. Consistency key for employers when considering holiday requests

If an employee is required to work on bank holidays under the terms of their contract of employment, the employee cannot refuse to work.

However, the employer should refuse holiday requests only where there is a good business reason to do so. If it does not, and treats employees inconsistently, it runs the risk of a discrimination claim, should an employee consider that their holiday request has been refused for reasons connected with a protected characteristic such as age, religion or race.

Employers can refuse holiday requested by giving a counter notice, for example if the timing would cause serious inconvenience because it is an especially busy time a time of year or other employees have already been granted holiday. The counter notice must be at least equivalent to the number of days’ leave that the employee requested. Employers should always fully explain the reason for the refusal to the employee in a considerate way.

Letter declining holiday request

Can an employer refuse holiday requests during a particular period?

5. Look out for ‘20 days’ holiday, plus bank holidays’ in contracts

This issue does not affect employers with an annual leave year running from 1 January to 31 December, as there are sufficient public holidays in this period. Employers in Scotland and Northern Ireland are unaffected by this issue because of the additional public holidays in those nations.

6. Additional bank holidays

Occasionally, the government grants an additional bank holiday. For example, it granted an additional public holiday on 8 May 2023 to celebrate King Charles’ coronation, which took place two days earlier. However, an employer’s workforce did not automatically have the right to take the day off work. 

Employers need to look at how they approach additional bank holidays. This is determined to some extent by the wording in employees’ contracts of employment. For example, 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.

Even if the employer is not contractually obliged to grant the extra day as leave, it may choose to do so as a goodwill gesture to employees, particularly given the historical significance of the event.

Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on 19 September 2022 was also designated a public holiday which, together with the extra bank holiday granted for the Platinum Jubilee in June, meant 2022 had two additional bank holidays.

What is an employee’s holiday entitlement if an extra bank holiday is granted one year?

If an employee’s contract states that their holiday entitlement is a certain number of days “plus eight bank holidays”, are they entitled to an extra bank holiday that is granted one year?

This article was first published in 2009 and last updated on 23 August 2024.

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