Shoosmiths LLP June 11, 2021 - Milton Keynes, England An Employer's Guide to the Additional Bank Holiday Announced for 2022 by Shoosmiths LLP An additional bank holiday has been announced to take place in June 2022 to mark Her Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. But are all employees automatically entitled to paid time off and what approach should employers take? What is changing? Next year, the Spring Bank Holiday (normally due to take place on the first Monday in May) will be moved to Thursday 2 June. The additional Bank Holiday will then take place on Friday 3 June. Are employees automatically entitled to the additional bank holiday? This will depend on the wording of the employee’s contract of employment. It is important to note that employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday. Employers are advised to check the wording of their employment contracts and communicate with employees about whether or not they will be required to work on the additional bank holiday in line with the terms of the contract. To help employers navigate this issue, we have set out below the most commonly used phrases relating to bank holidays that we see in employment contracts and what they mean in terms of the employee’s right to have paid time off work on 3 June 2022.
Even where there is no contractual entitlement to take the additional bank holiday as paid time off, many employers, as a gesture of goodwill, will decide to allow their employees to take the additional bank holiday or if that is not possible for business reasons, to provide time off in lieu. Previous approach to time off for additional bank holidays We previously enjoyed an additional bank holiday in 2011 (to mark the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) and 2012 (for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee). Therefore, when considering whether to allow employees paid time off for the additional bank holiday in 2022 we would recommend considering what has been done previously. To the extent employees have previously been offered paid time-off or time-off in lieu to mark an additional bank holiday, to adopt a different approach in respect of the 2022 additional bank holiday may cause a negative reaction from employees (in particular those with long enough service to have been working when this happened previously). Read full article at: https://www.shoosmiths.co.uk/insights/comment/an-employers-guide-to-the-additional-bank-holiday-announced-for-2022 |