With the Royal Wedding only a few weeks away, some employers may well be wondering if they have to pay their staff for this extra public holiday.

Recruitment Consultant 29th March 2011

According to Ursula Kelland, Employment Solicitor, at Hart Brown, “Employers will have to check the wording of their employment contracts and associated policies. The day does not actually increase any entitlement to statutory holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998.”
 

A contract which entitles employees to, for example, 20 days annual leave in addition to all statutory, bank and public holidays, would entitle employees to an extra day’s paid holiday. However if the contract entitles employees to 28 day annual leave including all statutory, bank and public holidays, then employees would not be entitled to the extra day’s paid holiday.

The same situation will arise again in 2012, with an additional bank holiday on 5 June 2012 to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee and her 60 years on the throne. The traditional late May bank holiday will also be postponed until 4 June 2012 to give the country a 4 day weekend break.

Recruitment Consultant 29th March 2011