Whenever a new employee joins a company there needs to be an agreement for their annual leave entitlement. This information should be documented in the employee’s written statement of employment particulars given to employees by their employer or the employees’ contract of employment. A written statement of employment must be given to employees by the employer no later than two months after the start of employment – this is a legal requirement. If you have any queries regarding holiday entitlement then it would be best to seek advice from a professional HR advisor.
Almost all workers in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year and this can, at the employer’s discretion, include bank holidays. Full-time workers (working 5 days a week) must receive 28 days of paid annual leave. This is calculated by multiplying a normal working week (5 days) by the annual entitlement of 5.6 weeks.
A lot of companies will have a set company-wide holiday year. Typically to coincide with the calendar year, January to December, or their financial year, April to March. Each company can vary, but the holiday year that applies to each employee must be stated in their written statement or contract of employment. If there is no set holiday year the leave will begin:
on the employees’ start date for the current employer
or1 October (the anniversary of the regulations becoming law)
If a worker commences employment part way through a company’s set holiday year then their initial holiday entitlement is based on the period from their start date until the leave year ends. In most cases, an employer will calculate entitlement for a part-year pro-rata to the full year.
There is no statutory entitlement to paid leave for public or bank holidays. It is at the employers’ discretion as to whether they offer their employees paid leave for bank holidays. If this is the case then the policy should be stated in the employee's contract. Paid public holidays can be counted as part of the statutory
Any holiday over four weeks (20 days for a 5 day week, 16 days for a four day week etc.) may with agreement be carried over into the following leave year. Again, any company policy regarding carry over should be detailed in the employees’ contract.
Remember to consider:
Example 1
Calculating holiday allowances for part time workers can get tricky because it my need to be done in hours and depending on circumstances may involve statutory holidays.
The starting point is that part-time workers are also entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year.
Example 2
The complexity comes when you consider how best to deal with bank holidays.
The easy option is to give them the day off if a bank holiday falls on one of their working days. Trouble is that this favours those who work on Mondays. To prevent this inequality, many companies give their part-time employees a pro-rated bank holiday allowance.
This is calculated based on the number of hours worked, regardless of the days that are worked and irrespective of whether or not they would be bank holidays.
Let’s take an example of a company where the full-time employees get eight bank holidays, a full-time worker works five 8 hour days per week. Equalling 40 hours in total.
Welcome back, log in to your existing Breathe HR account below
Don't have an account? Start a free trial
Did you forget your password?
Welcome back, log in to your existing Breathe Rota account below
Did you forget your password?