The Government has created a special bank holiday to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee; however, whether your staff are entitled to the day off will depend on how your employment contracts are written.

All employees are entitled to a minimum of 28 days’ holiday a year – which is equivalent to 20 days annual leave plus eight bank holidays. In the past, many employment contracts have stipulated that staff are entitled to 20 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, but more and more businesses are now switching to stating that workers can take 28 days leave, including bank holidays.

The benefit of doing so is that if, like this year, the Government announces a new bank holiday, then that falls within – rather than on top of – employees’ existing leave entitlement. If that is the case, you are under no obligation to give staff that day off and can either insist that they work or close for the day and take it out of their leave entitlement.

For further information, please call the ELAS Advice Team on 0161 785 2000.