What are bank holidays?
Can employees be required to work on bank holidays?
Are employees who are required to work on bank holidays entitled to pay in lieu of time off, or additional holiday?
Are part-time workers entitled to bank holidays?
If a part-time or shift-working employee is not scheduled to work on a bank holiday, is he or she entitled to an additional day's holiday?
An employer’s obligation to part-time workers must be considered in light of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000/1551), under which part-time workers are entitled to the same terms as comparable full-time workers, but on a pro rata basis.
The employer must ensure that a part-time employee receives his or her pro rated entitlement if bank holidays are included in the employee’s statutory minimum holiday entitlement, or if the employer grants an entitlement that exceeds the statutory minimum to its full-time workers.
To avoid treating a part-time employee less favourably than full-time employees, the employer should look at how many bank holidays the part-time employee will benefit from in light of the days of the week he or she works. If this results in a shortfall in the part-time employee’s entitlement to bank holidays, the employer should allow him or her additional holiday in lieu to take at another time.
Part-time or shift-working employees who do not normally work on Mondays (when most bank holidays fall) would not benefit from as many bank holidays as other employees if they are not allowed time off in lieu. The decision in McMenemy v Capita Business Services Limited [2007] IRLR 400 CS suggests that, where an employer operates a seven-day-a-week business where full-time employees who do not work on Mondays also lose out on bank holidays, it is lawful for part-time employees to be treated the same way. However, for employers that operate a five-day-a-week business, it would be only part-time employees who would lose out on bank holidays, resulting in less favourable treatment, which could be unlawful under the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. It is therefore safer to follow the best practice approach recommended in Department for Business, Innovation and Skills guidance (on the National Archives website) to give part-time employees a pro rated allowance for paid bank holidays, irrespective of whether or not they normally work on the days on which bank holidays fall.
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If a part-time employee is contracted to work a half day on a bank holiday, is he or she entitled to an additional half day's holiday to take at another time?
If an employer provides for pro rata bank holiday entitlement for part-time employees, how should it calculate this?
Can employees be required to take annual leave on bank holidays?
Can bank holidays be included in a worker's statutory leave entitlement?
Are employees entitled to time off for bank holidays in addition to the statutory minimum annual leave entitlement of 5.6 weeks?
What is an employee’s holiday entitlement if an extra bank holiday is granted one year?
If an employee’s contract states that his or her holiday entitlement is a certain number of days "plus eight bank holidays" is he or she entitled to an extra bank holiday that is granted one year?
Is an employee who is required to work on bank holidays entitled to extra pay?
What different types of holiday need to be accounted for in the written statement?
How should an employer deal with an employee who refuses to work on a bank holiday?
Are employers required to provide pay or time off in lieu of bank holidays that coincide with maternity leave?
Where an employee's period of paternity leave coincides with a bank holiday, is the employer under any obligation to provide a compensatory day off or pay in lieu?
Can Christian employees refuse to work on the bank holidays that are aligned to a Christian festival such as Easter?
Should employees who practise religions other than Christianity be given additional time off in lieu where a bank holiday is aligned to a Christian festival such as Easter?
How should an employer deal with an employee who calls in sick on a bank holiday?