The Royal Wedding
Are Employers Required
To Give Employees A Public Holiday?
People all over the world were thrilled when Prince William and Kate Middleton recently announced that they were engaged to be married; even more so when it was confirmed that the date would be a designated public holiday for the United Kingdom.
The Royal wedding will take place on 29th April 2011, and although the event will be great news for many, it is likely to leave some employers confused.
The additional day’s holiday is set to raise the total of public holidays in England and Wales during 2011 to 9, instead of the usual 8. While an extra day off may sound great to most, many small businesses are quite rightly concerned at the impact that the extra holiday could have on business.
And before we all start planning how we are going to spend our day off, we need to understand that just because this day has been announced as a public holiday does not necessarily mean that all employees are entitled to a day off. Legally there is no automatic entitlement for an employee to take this day off. Entitlement to take an additional paid holiday on this specific date will depend very much on an employee’s contract of employment.
By law, employees in the United Kingdom are entitled to 5.6 weeks annual leave per year (inclusive of public holidays). Employers may differ and some may not distinguish between ‘normal’ annual leave and public holidays. If appropriate an employer may give employees 5.6 weeks leave to take as and when they like. If this is the case, the employer would not be entitled to an additional day’s leave on 29th April 2011.
Other employment contracts may specify particular rules in relation to the act of taking public holidays, therefore it is essential to check your contract to be sure what you are entitled to - or People Vision can help you with this. Some contracts name each of the public holidays that employees are entitled to receive, whilst others may simply state that employees are entitled to time off on ‘all recognised public holidays.’ If the latter is the case then the employee will be entitled to time off for the royal wedding. However, where the public holidays to which an employee is entitled are specified in their contracts, they will not be entitled to this additional day.
Some employers might be concerned that if all employees take the extra day off, production may be slowed and sales affected. If this is the case and employees are entitled by contract to take the time off, then employers may wish to consider whether or not any of their employees would be willing to volunteer to work on this date. If this is the case then the employer may be able to authorise an additional day’s leave for the employee on an alternative date. However, if employees are not willing to volunteer, then they cannot be obliged to do so.
So it may be a bit of a minefield! If you would like one of the People Vision team to help you understand your contract please email alyson.pellowe@pvhr.com and we will provide you with a personalised recommendation.
For more information and advice please call us on 0845 4599710 where we will be happy to help.
Article written by
Alyson Pellowe: Managing Consultant
