Employers and employees will by now have become accustomed to having eight bank holidays per year. However, with Easter being a movable feast, it sometimes throws employers a curveball, particularly when their holiday year runs from April to April.

Navigating the Holiday Discrepancy

This year is one such instance, with Good Friday falling on March 29. This means that employers with a holiday year running from April to April will face nine bank holidays this holiday year and only seven bank holidays in the next holiday year. How employers handle this will depend on the wording of the holiday entitlement clause in their employees’ contracts.

Option 1: ‘20 Days Plus Bank Holidays’ Clause

If the wording is ‘20 days plus bank holidays’, employers would need to inform staff of the extra bank holiday this year and, if the business is closing on that day, employees would be given the extra day as paid leave, totalling 29 days of leave this year. If the business is not closing, employees do not have an automatic right to have this time off. Employers should also confirm that there will be one less bank holiday next year, meaning employees would be permitted to take one additional day of holiday. Without this adjustment, employees would only take 27 days of holiday, falling below the statutory minimum of 28 days and potentially exposing employers to claims.

Option 2: ’28 Days Including Bank Holidays’ Clause

If the wording is ‘28 days including bank holidays’, employers should again inform employees of the extra bank holiday this year and seven bank holidays next year. In this scenario, employees could simply take one of their 20 days of holiday as a bank holiday (resulting in 19 days plus nine bank holidays this year), and then next year, when there are only seven bank holidays, the entitlement would remain at 28 days. This would, however, have 21 days to take at their discretion, with 7 designated as bank holidays.

Addressing the Budgetary Impact of the Additional Bank Holiday

Finally, employers may not have been aware of the impact of the early Good Friday bank holiday until recently. It may be necessary for some businesses to review the budget they have allocated to accommodate the cost of an extra bank holiday this year for all their staff.

If you need any help or have any questions about this issue, please get in touch.