There are a variety of different rules and regulations when it comes to holidays from accrual to payments and links with other policies like sickness and maternity. We have put together some key facts and useful links to help you with some of the basics.
Key facts
Under the Working Time Regulations workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid annual holiday each year. (28 days for most workers who work a 5-day week)
Entitlement is pro rata for part timers
There are 8 bank holidays in each year. Leaving 20 days (4 weeks) to be taken during the year. Here is a useful link to UK Bank Holidays
There is no statutory right for employees to have bank holidays off. Reference to bank holidays and how your business wishes to operate should be referenced within your contract of employment
During the first year of employment, the amount of leave that workers can take at any time can be limited to the amount of leave that they have accrued. This accrues at 1/12 each month
Carry forward holidays to the next holiday year? The choice is yours, just make sure this is stated in an employee’s contract of employment. Although please be aware, if you only provide the statutory minimum (28 days) you may only allow 8 days to be carried forward or you will be in breach of the Working Time Regulations.
In certain circumstances employers must allow untaken holiday to carry forward should they be on maternity leave been absent from work i.e. sick – some useful information here carrying over leave
Taking leave – an employee must give at least twice the amount of notice of the time they want off – e.g. 2 weeks’ notice for 1 weeks’ leave, although you can state different notice for the process if you wish.
Workers must be paid at the rate of a ‘week’s pay for each week of their statutory annual leave
Workers must receive their ‘normal remuneration’ during their four-week entitlement – this can be calculated over a 12 week reference period (changing to 52 weeks from April 2020). This is in reference to a change in employment law regarding holiday pay and overtime payment
We understand calculating and monitoring your employees’ holiday can be time consuming. We have an easy solution to help keep track of holidays for your employees – a online, cloud based HR solution, and holidays are just one of the functions – for more information click here
We are here to help – should you have any questions in relation to the above or specific issues relating to holidays then please do not hesitate to contact us.