The King’s Coronation- are employees entitled to an extra paid holiday?

Firstly, from a legal perspective, it’s important to note that employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday and whether employees are entitled to an additional day’s leave for the King’s Coronation this year will ultimately depend on how the holiday clause within their contract of employment has been worded.

If, for example, the employment contract states that the employee is entitled to ‘20 days paid holiday per year plus bank holidays’, the employee will be entitled to the additional day off as paid leave. This is because the contract wording has not been limited to the “normal” or “usual” bank holidays observed in England and Wales or by reference to a specific number of bank holidays.

If, in the alternative, the contract provides for:

• ’28 days holiday per annum’ and is silent on specific bank holiday entitlements

Or

• ‘20 days holiday per annum plus the “usual” or “eight” bank/public holidays observed in England and Wales’ and essentially limits the number of applicable bank holidays

Employees will not be entitled to an additional day’s paid leave.

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Where employees do not have a contractual entitlement to paid time off on the additional bank holiday but the business decides to close for the day, there are two ways in which this can be approached. Employers could either:

• Allow employees to have this as an extra paid day off, as a gesture of goodwill

Or

• Require employees to take this off as a holiday. Where this is the case, employers should write to their employees, in advance, to confirm that this day must be taken as holiday and that it will be deducted from their overall annual entitlement

For those businesses who will be treating the additional bank holiday as a normal working day, communications should be sent to employees, in advance, to confirm that if they wish to take the day off, a holiday request must be submitted in the usual way.

In advance of the King’s Coronation, we would recommend that employers check the wording of their employment contracts and notify their employees on how the additional bank holiday is being treated, as soon as possible.

If you have any queries on the above or would like a member of the team to review your contracts to determine whether an additional day’s holiday is to be granted, please get in touch with one of our expert Employment Lawyers.