| There is no statutory requirement for employers to give staff a day off on a bank holiday or to pay more if they are required to work on one. The only statutory holiday requirement is to give workers a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year (28 days for someone working a 5-day week). In many cases, employers give 20 days plus bank holidays, which meets the legal requirement (as there are no less than 8 bank holidays each year).
Any entitlement to take bank holidays off or to be paid more to work on them, is a contractual matter. So you should check your contract to see what is says. There are a number of possibilities such as:
- 28 days per year, including bank holidays
- 20 days each year plus bank holidays
- 20 days each year plus the 8 standard bank holidays
This will then govern what you need to do when there is an additional bank holiday. In the case of 1, above, in 2023 you would only need to give 19 days plus the 9 bank holidays to comply with statute and your contract. However, you may choose to grant the additional bank holiday anyway.
For 2, above, you would need to give 20 days plus 9 bank holidays, as you do not put any cap on the bank holidays.
For 3, above, you would need to give 20 days plus the 8 normal bank holidays, and you could either have staff work on 8th May (the additional bank holiday) or, you could give notice for them to take it as a day’s leave out of their 20 day entitlement. Again, you could choose to grant it to them as an additional day if you wish.
Whatever you do, make sure part-timers receive the same entitlement on a pro rata basis as full timers. So if you grant full-timers an extra day, that means they get 29 days in total or 5.8 weeks. So part time staff should also receive 5.8 weeks in the same year, including any bank holidays that fall on their working days and are taken as paid leave. It makes no difference if the extra bank holiday does not fall on one of their normal working days. |
