Staff Holidays 2022

[Newchodge]

Just in case anyone has not noticed, there are 9 Bank Holidays in 2022 instead of the usual 8:

1 January New Year's Day (Saturday, so 3 January instead)
15 April Good Friday
18 April Easter Monday
2 May May Day
2 June Whit Monday (OK it's a Thursday)
3 June Platinum Jubilee
29 August Summer Bank Holiday
25 December Christmas Day (Sunday, so 26 December)
26 December Boxing Day (27 December)

Have you thought about whether you will give your staff the additional paid day off? Or whether you must? Or what you will do?

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I was not aware of it until you mentioned it but they will have an additional day .
It is easier with a small amount of staff compared to a large company to do this

 

[Cookie monster 00]

Thank you for posting I had forgotten about the jubilee. We just give 5.6 weeks off per year so I can't imagine it'll be any different. Might ask for volunteers in the first instance though to see who wants to come in

 

[Bushman]

I will still be doing the 5.6 weeks, just because the politicians want to try and buy some votes by giving an extra days bank holiday doesn't mean I'm going to pay for it.

 

[Mr D]

I get contracted hours off, if I'm supposed to work a bank holiday and want the time off I have to book it.
The extra bank holiday I may simply treat as a normal working day.
Work doesn't stop just because of bank holidays. Just usually means I have to do a week's work in less than a working week.

 

[IanSuth]

The correct answer is "it depends what is in the contracts"

If you have employment contracts like my old one which said "Statutory (bank) holidays plus 20 days for the first 3 years rising by 1 day per full year of service up to a max of 28" then you have to pay that extra day as a normal banh holiday. If you have said a set amount for the year in terms of weeks then you don't. (p.s. my old contract was so ancient it still mentioned we were all due 15p a day in luncheon vouchers)

Hence the importance of getting your contracts reviewed regularly

Something else to start looking at is also holiday booking - a lot of people are going to be after those first few days of June as they can book off the Mon-Wed using up just 3 days but getting a full 9 days off work, that kind of thing always causes arguments if someone is seen to be getting preferential treatment

 

[Newchodge]

I always advise holiday entitlement should be in weeks, and not specifying bank holidays. This is one of the reasons - an employer can still give the additional day but they are not forced to as they may be if the contract states 4 weeks plus statutory holidays.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Jubilee weekend always ties in with a 'significant' birthday for me, so it's nice of the Queen to create a party for me.

 

[Paul Norman]

I admit our contracts are worded to give 22 days annual leave in addition to official bank holidays.

So I will be giving the extra day off. Which I discovered just a moment ago reading this thread.

I am pretty relaxed about it.

 

[Newchodge]

I get the impression that you have a fairly low staff turnover, so this may not affect you, however:

The legal minimum holiday is 5.6 weeks. For someone working 5 days/week that is, effectively, 20 days + 8 bank holidays. Consider the effect if you employ someone on your contract who is only with you for 6 months.

Let's assume they work from 1 June to 30 November (in a normal year), then leave. You give them half their leave entitlement, 11 days, and the bank holidays that fall in that period - 1. You give them 12 days. However the law requires that they get 5.6 weeks, 28 days, half of which is 14 days. So, even though you already give 2 days/year more than the statutory entitlement you have given them 2 days less than the law requires.

If we reverse that, and they work 1 December to 31 May then leave. You give them half their leave entitlement, 11 days, and the bank holidays that fall in that period - 7. You give them 18 days, 4 days more than the law requires and, probably, 2 days more than you meant to give them.

The change in bank holidays this year to put 2 into June changes the figures slightly, but the principle is still the same.