I was in India when William and Kate announced they were going to tie the knot. The big story in Tamil Nadu was the wedding of the state governor's grandson in Madurai - there were billboard sized posters
everywhere and wall to wall coverage on local telly. So I missed all the excitement (well, modest excitement) back home. Which included the best bit of all - to mark Wills and Kate's big day, David Cameron promised us all an extra Bank Holiday on April 29!
Well, not quite. Under the Working Time Regulations, a worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks' annual leave in each leave year. This is equivalent to 28 days for a five-day working week. Provided that an employer gives 28 days' paid holiday (or the pro-rata equivalent for part time workers) in a holiday year, then they're acting within the letter of the law. There's no automatic right to have a Bank Holiday off work - that's for the contract of employment to cover.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
Basically, if your contract of employment says that you're entitled to 20 days' paid holiday
plus Bank Holidays, then you'll have the chance to do a bit of flag waving outside Westminster Abbey and rejoice in your extra paid day out of the office.
If your contract of employment says that you're entitled to 28 days' paid holiday
inclusive of Bank Holidays... well, on the face of it your holiday entitlement is exactly the same as before. And (making his feelings abundently clear) Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, has said: "There is no legal obligation to have a day off or extra pay, so yet again this Government is promising one thing and delivering the exact opposite."
So what does
your contract of employment say?
No doubt many employers will use their discretion as to how they deal with this situation - and here at Synergy we're interested to know what the general approach will be...
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