Employers with a holiday year running from April to March are being warned that they could owe their employees an extra day’s leave in the next week because Easter is late this year.
In England and Wales, there are ordinarily eight bank holidays per year. But because Good Friday and Easter Monday both fall in April in 2025, employees with an April-to-March annual leave entitlement will only receive seven public holidays.
Under the Working Time Regulations, the statutory minimum holiday entitlement for employees is 28 days (5.6 weeks) including bank holidays. However, some employment contracts stipulate “20 days plus bank holidays”.
Sarah Collier, partner of Bermans law firm, said: “Where staff contracts say they are entitled to 28 days including bank holidays, there is no issue for employers. This is because they will receive their 28 days regardless of the number of bank holidays.
“However, in cases where contracts state 20 days plus all bank holidays, staff would only receive 27 days’ leave this year, which is below the statutory minimum entitlement.”
She said employers with April-March holiday years should review their arrangements to see whether they are affected.
“While it is unlikely that this will result in a significant number of employment tribunal claims, not least given the compensation would only equate to one day’s pay, it could result in formal grievances being issued by staff who have not received the statutory minimum holidays during this holiday year,” she explained.
“Workplace grievances can be time-consuming and costly for businesses in terms of both management time and overall productivity.”
Collier added: “Affected employers who have not yet taken action need to decide whether to allow staff to take the extra day before 31 March, or seek agreement that the additional day’s leave can be carried over into next year’s holiday allocation.”
The next time Easter falls awkwardly for affected employers is 2027-28. The long Easter weekends will be on 26-29 March 2027 and 14-17 April 2028. This means employees would only have six bank holidays between April 2027 and March 2028.
The issue does not affect employers in Scotland or Northern Ireland because they have more bank holidays.
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