Annual Leave and Public Holiday Entitlements

England and Wales have 8 permanent bank holidays per year, whereas Scotland has an extra bank holiday and Northern Ireland has 2 extra bank holidays. Those days are as follows:

England and Wales

• New Year's Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Early May bank holiday
• Spring bank holiday
• Summer bank holiday
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

Scotland

• New Year’s Day
• 2nd January
• Good Friday
• Early May bank holiday
• Spring bank holiday
• Summer bank holiday
• St. Andrew’s Day
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

Northern Ireland

• New Year’s Day
• St Patrick’s Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Early May bank holiday
• Spring bank holiday
• 12th July
• Summer bank holiday
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

Bank holiday entitlement

Employers do not have to give employees paid leave on bank holidays. Any right to time off, payment for time off or extra pay for bank holidays worked depends on the terms of the employee's contract of employment. Therefore employees may be required to work on bank holidays. Employers may choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.

Holiday leave entitlement

Employees’ holiday rights start on the first day of their employment.

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, workers (including most agency and freelance workers) have the right to:

• 5.6 Weeks’ paid leave each year, this equates to 28 days for full-time employees

Part-time employees

Part-time employees are entitled to the same holidays as full-time workers, calculated on a pro-rata basis. For example:

• 5.6 x 5 working days = 28 days
• 5.6 x 4 working days = 22.4 days
• 5.6 x 3 working days = 16.8 days

Irregular hours

Annual leave for irregular workers is best calculated as a percentage using 12.07% of days worked.

Limits on statutory leave

Statutory leave is capped at 28 days per year. If an employee works 6 days per week their statutory entitlement is 28 days, not 33.6 (6 multiply by 5.6)

Termination of employment

• All employees are entitled to payment for untaken statutory leave entitlement on termination of employment.
• If an employee has taken more leave than their entitlement on termination of employment the employer cannot take a deduction of the over payment from the employees final wage unless there is a ‘relevant agreement’ in the contract of employment.

Rolled-up holiday pay

Employers should pay their employees at the time that they take annual leave. Rolled-up pay – where holiday pay is staggered over the course of the year – is not permitted.

Bank holidays that fall on the weekend

If a bank holiday falls on the weekend, a ‘substitute’ weekday becomes a bank holiday – normally the following Monday.

 

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