Employment law

News: Increases to holiday entitlement

  • (Press Article)
  • Date: 01/10/2007
  • Author/Solicitor: Nick Arron

In a move seen by the government as improving the quality of life of employees, the Government has awarded employees up to eight extra days annual paid holiday with the first four coming in October this year.

The objective is that businesses will benefit from reduced absenteeism and a workforce who are more motivated and productive and the extra holidays will benefit up to 3.5 million women and 2.5 million men.

The new regulations boost the minimum holiday entitlement from 20 days a year to 24 days from this October, and to 28 days from April 2009.

To summarise:-

Any time off for bank and public holidays can be included in the additional entitlement (e.g. if employees get 4 weeks' leave plus time off for bank holidays, their holiday entitlement will not increase);
The holiday will be calculated on a pro-rata basis for part-time workers regardless of whether or not they usually work on bank holidays;
The increases from October 2007 and April 2009 will be calculated proportionally depending on when your employees leave year starts;
The minimum statutory holiday entitlement is set at 28 days, although employers may give more contractual holiday than that;
Some or all of the additional holiday may be carried over to the following leave year with the agreement of both the employer and the member of staff;
Payment in lieu of the additional holiday will not be permitted from 1 April 2009, except on termination of employment;
The additional holiday will not be excluded from the calculation of average weekly working hours under the Working Time Regulations, and;
there will be no qualifying period for the additional holiday entitlement and partial days' holiday need not be rounded up to the nearest full day.

As a transitional measure, companies will be allowed to continue to buy out the additional leave entitlement (the four extra days) introduced from October 2007 until 1st April 2009. After 1st April 2009 the buyout of any of the additional leave entitlement will cease.