Eggstra problems for Easter
This entry was posted in Employment Law on .
By Matthew Finley, director and Head of Employment.
Being a movable feast, Easter keeps us on our toes. And that’s certainly going to be the case for some employers over the next few years as they’ll have to accommodate employee’s eggstra days off. Here’s why:
If you run an April to March holiday year and your contracts provide for 20 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (of which there are eight) then the dates in which Easter falls mean you’ll have to do some adjusting. This year, Good Friday and Easter Monday fell on 3 April and 6 April. Next year, they’ll be on 25 March and 28 March. Two Easters fall within one holiday year. But in 2017, Easter returns to April.
So for the holiday year 2015/2016, there will be ten bank holidays. Conversely, in 2016/2017 there will only be six bank holidays. In that year, therefore, some employees will need to allow two extra day’s leave to ensure that employees get eight, rather than six, public holidays. If that doesn’t happen, five-day-week employees will not be getting their statutory minimum 28 days’ annual leave entitlement.
So what to do? Well, you could simply top up leave as we’ve described. Or you could think about changing your holiday year to January to December. Or you could even look to make some contractual changes to provide for 28 day’s leave inclusive of public holidays. Be mindful though that changing employee’s contracts is a delicate process. It will need to be planned out and navigated very carefully; something we can help you do.
If you would like to discuss this, or any other employment issue, then contact me on 01282 433241, or send us an on-line enquiry, and one of our team will get back to you.
