Employers and workers should address individual contracts and if necessary, seek the relevant independent legal advice.
Holiday entitlement
The majority of workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ worth of paid holiday on an annual basis. There is an exception to this in those who are self-employed.
The statutory 5.6 weeks is split into four weeks derived from EU law, and an additional 1.6 weeks in UK law. The guidance relates to the UK’s legal minimum entitlement of 5.6 weeks. This is the minimum requirement, but many employers may offer additional holiday that extends past that point. This will be detailed within an employee’s contract of employment. The entitlement remains unchanged regardless of whether an individual is on sick leave, parental leave or any other form of statutory leave. A worker can request holiday at the same time as they are on sick leave but cannot be forced to take holiday while off sick.
Workers who have been placed on furlough continue to accrue statutory holiday entitlements throughout the period in which they are placed on furlough, and also any additional holiday entitlement laid out in their contract of employment.
Taking holiday
Employers have the ability to require workers to take holiday, and to cancel a worker’s holiday, where sufficient notice is given to the worker.
The mandatory notice periods are:
• Double the length of the holiday if the employer wishes the worker to take holiday at a specific time • The length of the planned holiday where the employer wishes to cancel a worker’s holiday or requires the worker not to take holiday on particular dates Employers can request that workers take or cancel holiday with less notice, but the worker must agree to this. The notice periods are in advance of the first day of the holiday, and the notice must be given prior to the notice period commencing. To put this into practice, if an employer wanted to stop a worker from taking a week’s holiday, they would have to give notice earlier than one week before the first day of that holiday. When calculating the notice period, any uninterrupted period of holiday counts as a single period. The rules on notice periods can be amended by written agreement between the employer and the worker.
Workers on furlough are entitled to take holiday, and for it to have no effect on their furlough. The mandatory notice periods still apply.
If employers would like workers to take annual leave during their period of furlough, they should discuss this with them before requiring them to do so. Employers should also consider if there are any restrictions employees are under, for example, if they must socially distance or self-isolate, as this could potentially stop the worker from resting and relaxing, which are the purposes of taking holiday.
Bank holidays
Employers have the option to include bank holidays as part of a workers’ statutory holiday entitlement, but they do not have to. Employers can instruct workers who would ordinarily take bank holidays as holiday to work instead, as long as they use the standard notice periods. Workers are still entitled to the statutory holiday entitlement for the year, so employers need to consider this. For workers on furlough, where a bank holiday falls within their period of furlough and the worker would have usually worked that bank holiday, their furlough is unaffected by it. If the worker would ordinarily have their bank holiday as annual leave, then there are two options: • If the employer and worker are in agreement that the bank holiday can be taken as annual leave while on furlough, the employer must pay the correct holiday pay • If the employer and worker are in agreement that the bank holiday will not be taken as annual leave at that time, then the worker must still receive the day of annual leave that would have been received. The leave can be deferred to a later date, but the worker must still receive their full holiday entitlement Holiday pay
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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