With the Easter Break coming upon us soon, some workers and employees may be wodnering what their rights are to time off work and to pay.
The employment rights part is covered by an PAYadvice.UK article which provides insightful information on the topic of whether workers have a right to bank holiday as paid leave.
See:
The key to whether a worker has a right to leave and pay is government by the terms of employment, often stated in the contract of employment or published in the employer holiday pay scheme rules.
This is then compared with worker and employee rights as covered by the Working Time Regulations and the Employment Rights Act which applies rules on minimum entitlement and pay that employers should apply. Failure to do so may result in action through an employment tribunal or the courts. The duty of policing holiday pay rights is soon to be in the hands of the new Fair Work Agency (FWA).
How many bank or public holidays are there?
In the calendar year starting 1st January there are usually 8 standard bank or public holidays in England and Wales each year. There can be other variations in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Back in 2022 there were two additional public holidays for the Platinum Jubilee and the Queens funeral in their respective calendar years.
And when Christmas and New Year fall on weekends, then alternate days are designated as Bank and Public Holidays which can result in additional complications when someone may work weekends.
However, holiday years used by employers and business don’t have to align with calendar years.
Employers are able to set their own holiday years, and historically, some holiday years commenced on the day an employee started work within regulations as a default.
Where are bank holidays defined?
Public and bank holidays are announced ahead of the relevant year by the UK government and also set by the banking industry organisation PAY.UK in relation to the application of non-banking days for services such as BACS. BACS is the most popular method of payroll payments by employers.
GOV.UK lists the UK bank holidays and the variations for Scotland.
April holiday year start!
Some employers choose to operate holiday years commencing on a variety of mid year dates, they could be any date and even vary between employees or group of employees. Some holiday years may reflect a position in the past prior to mergers and takeovers.
After the application of the calendar year, the next most popular start of holiday year is 1st April. This is also the date revisions were made to holidays for irregular and part year workers in the changes to the Working Time Regulations (WTR) made in 2024.
The use of 1st April or other dates can cause some distortion of the number of bank holidays that fall in each holiday year as Easter Sunday can float between various points from March through to April. This can result in holiday years covering less or more than the standard 8 days.
How is the Easter break defined – The date of Easter is determined by the spring equinox and full moon cycle. It takes place on the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox (also known as the ecclesiastical equinox), which is on 21st March annually. Easter therefore falls on a Sunday which can be between 22nd March and 25th April in different years.
Of course Good Friday is 2 days before with the Monday after Easter being set as UK Bank holiday.
Statutory holiday minimums
The Working Time Regulations (WTR) for regular paid employees and irregular and part year workers where the employer has chosen to apply regular holiday as opposed to the newer hours accrual or Rolled- Up Holiday Pay (RHP) set out legal minimum paid holiday entitlements. Employers can choose to pay more (but not less).
WTR regulation 13 sets a legal minimum under former European Union requirements of 4 weeks holiday (20 days for someone working 5 or more days per week). Regulation 13a adds an additional United Kingdom addition of a further 1.6 weeks (8 days), these continue to apply after BREXIT in relation to minimum holiday entitlements for the relevant employers holiday year.
For a worker or employee who works a 5 day week that provides a statutory minimum 28 days paid holiday each holiday year.
The regulations also optionally permit bank and public holidays to be utilised by employers to cover the regulation 13a the 1.6 weeks (8 days) part.
Some employer only pay the statutory minimum holiday pay entitlements (or so they claim). Government based research has discovered that over 1.8 million workers are denied elements of their holiday entitlements in breach of their employment rights.
Must a bank holiday be a paid holiday?
The simple answer is NO – There is no statutory right to paid leave on bank holidays. Whether a bank holiday is a working day is a contractual matter between the employee and the employer.
However, the employer can optionally designate certain days and closure points where employees are to take paid holiday leave. This can be applied to paid bank holidays. If it is, then this day is paid and the entitlement to leave reduced.
The requirement on the employer is that they give appropriate notice of when the paid holiday is to be taken. Often this is set within the employers holiday scheme rules. Many will set out public or other local holiday closure dates when employees are expected to take leave.
Contract v Regulation and public holidays
Employers are free to set their contractual or holiday scheme rules subject to meeting or exceeding the legal minimums set out by the Working Time Regulations.
For other employers, they may set out policies that define public holidays as closure and requiring employees to take leave on days listed in their holiday scheme rules.
Some employer set a holiday entitlement
- with no reference to public or bank holidays such 28 days or more
- with reference to bank or public holidays being in addition to the specified entitlement
- with reference to the entitlement being inclusive of specified public or bank holidays
For many, bank holidays may not require booking as leave as the leave and pay is automatic. For others, the employee may be expected to book all leave to receive pay including bank holidays.
The April Holiday year dilemma
If the employers set a 20 day entitlement plus listed public holidays and the holiday year starts in April each year, there may be a problem.
The statutory minimum holiday entitlement each year is 28. However, as Easter floats there may be holiday years where there are less than 8 bank holidays and the contract provides only 27 – this would be a potential breach of holiday pay law. Yet other years provide 9 or even 10.
April 2024 to 2025
For the holiday year where April is operated, there are only 7 bank holidays because Easter is later in April 2025. This year Easter is later and may cross into a new holiday year where they are part of the employers holiday scheme. And Good Friday in 2024 fell on Friday 29th March 2024.
However, if the contract stipulates 20 days plus bank holidays, this does not align with the Working Time Regulations as the holiday entitlement provision compared with the statutory minimum is one day short!
If the employers contracted holiday is 21 days or more plus bank holidays, there isn’t a challenge. Although be careful with Christmas when they fall on weekends also as other days can be stipulated as public or bank holidays.
April 2025 to 2026
If the holiday year starts on 1st April there are 8. However, if it starts on 6th April there are 9.
Now the next 2 holiday years which start from April annually each have 9 public or bank holidays due to the moving nature of Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Public and local holiday variations
There are variations across the United Kingdom of when bank and public holidays fall, and some areas of the various countries may continue to hold local holidays where businesses close.
PAYadvice.UK publish a number of article relating to Holiday Pay rights, entitlements and pay:
PAYadvice.UK 7/4/2025