Holiday entitlement - what an employer needs to know

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HR expert David Wright offers the lowdown on holiday entitlement law. Paid holidays for employees were introduced for all staff under the European Working Time Directive in 1998. The current UK minimum entitlement is 28 days, this is deemed to include Bank /Public holidays. There is no separate legal entitlement for paid bank holidays and indeed many Salons open on bank holidays. So if a member of staff works 5/6 days a week they are entitled to 28 days paid holiday a year. If the salon doesn’t normally open on a Monday they are not entitled to additional or lieu days it simply means they have more of your 28 days to take at a time of their choice. For those working less than a five-day week, the entitlement is as follows: 4 days - entitlement is 22.5 days 3 days - entitlement is 17 days 2 days – entitlement is 11.25 days 1 day – entitlement is 5.6 days For staff starting midway through a leave year you just pro rata the entitlement and round up to the nearest half day. Irregular hours Some staff work irregular hours. In these cases employers may decide to express the holiday entitlement in hours. The formula is weekly contracted hours x 5.6 ( 5.6 is 5.6 weeks i.e 28 days)So let’s say someone works 20 hours a week, their holiday entitlement is 20 x 5.6 =112 hours a year. Once again this includes any Bank holidays that fall on days they would normally work Holiday Pay There have been a number of Tribunal cases over the last few years. It is clear that if an employee receives commission they should receive the average commission earned (once again over the last 13 weeks) when they take holiday. Their contract should detail their specific holiday entitlement and when the holiday year starts. Normally holidays cannot be carried over to the next holiday year but there are exceptions eg if an employee has been absent from work on maternity leave or long-term sickness. When Can Holidays Be Taken Normally an employee requests holiday and the employer decides if it can be approved but typically the Contract indicates the notice required to request holidays—note it is request holidays not demand holidays. However sometimes there are rules and limitations For example some employers require an employee to take one or more weeks in a specified period, this might be the Christmas/New year close down. Alternatively there might be a limit on the duration of holidays eg no more than two consecutive weeks. Or the employer might just reserve the right to fix one week’s holiday to coincide with a close down or anticipated quiet period or refurbishment. Some salons restrict the number of single Saturday’s that can be taken or the number of people off at one time. These requirements would either be in the employee’s contract or their workplace rules. If an employee is sick while on holiday then legally they can advise you of this and are deemed to have been sick and not on holiday. A medical certificate is still required. In reality it doesn’t happen very often as the employee has to return their holiday pay and are instead paid SSP but not for the first three days. Finally Staff on maternity leave accrue holiday entitlement throughout the period of maternity leave. In some cases employers allow the staff to anticipate this holiday to effectively leave work earlier than they had planned. Or they return and use the holidays rather than having 13 weeks unpaid maternity leave. Finally of course it can be carried over and taken on return from maternity.