Page 7 - Moore Blatch Business Magazine edition 2

EMPLOYMENT

HOLIDAY PAY?

GIVE ME A BREAK!

As if HR isn’t complex enough, there’s now something else to look out
for. If your holiday year runs from 1 April – 31 March, there’s a risk
that this year you could breach employees’ holiday rights.

It’s all because Good Friday falls on 30 March in 2018, which means
there are nine instead of eight bank holidays from 1 April to 31 March.
If your contracts state that employees are entitled to 20 days’ holiday
plus bank holidays, you’ll need to make sure their paid leave covers
that extra bank holiday. If you don’t, you’ll be in breach of contract.

A COUPLE OF EX CEPTIONS:

If your contracts state explicitly that employees are entitled to 20 days leave plus eight bank
holidays, and they take all the bank holidays as holiday (as well as 20 other days’ leave),
this will mean they’ve exceeded their holiday entitlement for the 2017/18 holiday year..

If your employees agree to accept 20 days paid leave plus 8 bank holidays for 1
April 2017 to 31 March 2018 (28 days holiday is the statutory minimum).

EVER YTHING SORTED? NOT QUITE…

The ‘fun’ is likely to continue the following year, because between 1 April 2018
to 31 March 2019 there may only be seven bank holidays. This means your
employees will only have 27 days paid annual leave – one day less than the
statutory minimum. So you’ll have to allow them another paid day off.

THE GENERAL RULE

Making any unilateral change to employees’ holiday entitlement without their consent is a
breach of contract. Therefore we advise that you consider what your policy will be in relation
to the additional bank holiday and decide whether you need to communicate with your
employees to prevent any confusion arising. If you’d like to know more about these rogue
Good Fridays or just need to be certain what your contracts stipulate, please get in touch.

After all that, you’ll probably need a holiday!

NA OMI GREENWOOD
P artner, employment
020 3274 1006
naomi.greenwood@mooreblatch.com

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