Holiday Entitlement

Every employer should know the basics about statutory holiday entitlement for permanent employees. So, here is our eight-point guide.

1. All full-time employees are entitled to twenty days of paid holiday a year, usually defined as four weeks.
2. Part-time workers are entitled to the same amount of leave, pro rata. If they work a two-day week, that would be four weeks of two days.
3. Employers have the right to impose restrictions as to when holidays may be taken. Workers may give notice of their intention to take leave at a particular time however the employer can turn down such a request depending on coverage requirements (eg, insist leave taken over the Christmas and new year period, for example, or during ‘factory shutdown’ periods).
4. Contrary to popular belief and common practice in many organisations, employees are not legally entitled to regard high days, holy days, Bank Holidays and the like, as additional days leave.
5. Similarly, members of religious groups and minorities have no special entitlement to time-off on days significant to their religion.
6. During the first year of someone’s employment, the amount of leave due is in direct proportion to the amount of the year they’ve worked. This works out at 1.66 days holiday for each month worked.
7. Paid leave can be taken in batches by mutual agreement, but cannot be accumulated year-on-year.
8. Holiday regulations are ‘written in stone’. Any arrangement to override them, surrendering holiday rights in lieu of other benefits, is legally invalid.

Please note that employers using Temporary Workers do not have worry about any of these regulations.