en it was announced that William and Kate were to be married on 29 April 2011, the government responded by declaring the wedding day a public holiday to ‘ensure the most people possible will have a chance to celebrate on the day.’ Marvellous stuff. But, without wishing to dampen the national spirit of enthusiasm, will ‘most people’ actually be able to take the day off to participate in the mass waves of bonhomie?
The extra holiday will fall in the same week as Easter Monday, raising hopes of a three-day week for many. It is popularly assumed that workers are entitled to take bank and public holidays off as a matter of course. Sadly, that isn’t correct.
Employment Law Partner at Frettens, Kate Fretten, explains “Bank and public (or ‘common law’) holidays are days on which banks are legally permitted to close for business; or as declared from time to time by royal proclamation. Also included in this are days, such as Christmas Day and Good Friday, which have become customary holidays because of common observance, although not specified by law as bank holidays.”
Whatever the origin of a bank or public holiday, there is no statutory right to take it as leave. It is only where workers have a contractual right to take bank and public holidays as leave that they may do so.
Kate explains how this applies to an employee’s entitlement on 29th April this year, “If a worker takes leave on a bank or public holiday in accordance with the contract, it is wholly legitimate for this day to be deducted from his or her statutory holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations, unless he or she has a specific contractual entitlement to bank and public holidays in addition to the minimum statutory entitlement. Although the Government increased the statutory minimum annual leave entitlement to reflect the number of bank / public holidays in England and Wales, it did not thereby introduce a free-standing statutory right to take leave on such days. So, workers not contractually entitled to take leave on bank or public holidays must, if they wish to take 29 April 2011 off, make a holiday request in the normal way. And their employer will be entitled to refuse such a request.”
In practice, of course, many workers have a contractual or customary entitlement to take time off on bank and public holidays, or in lieu of bank and public holidays, as well as their basic annual leave entitlement. In short, it all comes down to the wording of the contract.
If in doubt, check your contracts of employment or contact the Employment Team at Frettens for further advice.
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