Will you have to give extra time off to your staff for the royal wedding?

Entitlement to an additional day’s holiday will depend entirely on the wording of your employment contracts. Employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on bank holidays unless their contract of employment allows them to.

The statutory minimum annual holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks (28 days) which may include the normal 8 bank holidays. So, if your employment contract states that the annual leave entitlement is a certain number of days plus bank holidays, then your employee will be entitled to the additional day off.

However, if the contract states that the entitlement is to a certain number of days, and does not mention bank holidays then there is no entitlement to an additional day’s leave. Neither will there be an entitlement if it is expressed as a certain number of days “plus eight bank holidays”, or if the contract specifies which bank holidays are included. Therefore, if your employee wishes to take the extra bank holiday off then it would be deducted from their normal holiday entitlement.

Of course, regardless of the contractual entitlement to paid time off on the additional bank holiday, employers may want to consider granting the holiday as a goodwill gesture particularly if there is inconsistent contractual wording resulting in some employees entitled to the extra day and some not.