Summer, may seem like a long way off, however celebrations have already begun to honour the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. To mark the event there will be an extra bank holiday on Tuesday, 5 June, 2012. The spring bank holiday in May has also been moved to Monday 4 June to complement it.
That week, workers will only need to take three days of leave in order to gain a nine-day break from work, and, with the summer half-term break also overlapping with the double bank holiday at many schools, commercial property employers may face an influx of holiday requests from employees.
Though, the scale of the problem is expected to be smaller than last year, when due the Royal Wedding, Easter and the May bank holiday falling inside the same two-week period, there were only three working days between 22 April and 2 May.
Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) has advised commercial property employers to plan ahead for the additional bank holiday on Tuesday, June 5, which was created to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee festivities this year.
Acas has said that it is already receiving calls to its helpline from employers seeking information on clashing leave requests and it has urged commercial property organisations to act now to make sure that they are ready.
National helpline Manager at Acas, Stewart Gee commented: “For many, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is an opportunity to celebrate and with two bank holidays at the beginning of June, employers may receive more requests for time off.
“We’re already getting calls to the Acas helpline from employers seeking advice. It’s important to be as fair and consistent as possible by having a policy on how to manage time off and leave requests so employees can join in the celebrations and employers can maintain morale at work.”
There is no statutory right to public/bank holidays, so the announcement of an additional bank holiday does not increase any entitlement for leave according to the Working Time Regulations.
Whether an employee will benefit from the extra bank holiday will rest on the phrasing of their contract.
For instance, a contract which allows an employee to, 20 days annual leave in addition to all statutory, bank and public holidays, would in theory give the employee an extra day’s paid holiday. However if public holidays are recorded by name, in an agreement, an employee might not be automatically entitled to the additional public holiday.
There is no legal right to be paid extra for working on a bank holiday. This will be subject to the terms on the employment agreement.
Nevertheless, many commercial property employers do provide incentives to work on bank holidays so it can be worth checking out any contractual requirements.
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