Six Things you need to know about Bank Holidays

England and Wales have eight permanent bank holidays per year: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Bank holidays are slightly different in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Employees do not have a statutory right to take bank holidays off work. Employees can be expected to work on bank holidays, can have these designated as part of their annual leave entitlement, as additional paid holiday over and above their holiday entitlement, or any other arrangement as dictated by their contract of employment.

Similarly, employees have no statutory right to extra pay for working on a bank holiday, though many organisations do offer time and a half or double pay.

Part Time Employees have the right to be treated as favourably as full time workers. Employers must ensure that bank holiday entitlements are comparable between full and part time staff, for example by giving part time employees a pro-rata bank holiday allowance.

Employees cannot refuse to work Bank Holidays, even on religious grounds. However employers should be careful that refusing to grant Christian employees time off for bank holidays associated with the Christian faith (e.g. Good Friday) does not place them at a disadvantage when compared with employees of other faiths or no faith, as this could be classed as religious discrimination. For example, if you are allowing Muslim staff to take time of for Eid, but do not allow Christian staff to take time off for Easter, this could be perceived as discrimination.

In 2020 May Bank Holiday is changing from Monday to Friday, to coincide with the 75^th Anniversary of VE Day. This will take pace on Friday 8^th May 2020, and it is worth checking that all your staff are aware of this change before they start to book their annual leave.

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