Clocks Changing and Employee Pay: A Guide for UK Businesses

Does your holiday year run April to March? If so, listen up!

In England and Wales there are generally 8 fixed Bank Holidays each calendar year, except for Easter which moves around due to the lunar cycle.

The Bank Holidays in England and Wales are New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May Bank Holiday, Spring Bank Holiday, Summer Bank Holiday in August, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different entitlements, and these can be found on the Gov website.

With Easter falling late this year, employers with leave years running 1 st April 2024 to 31st March 2025 will find there are only 7 Bank Holidays during this period. This could leave you at risk if you offer the statutory minimum annual leave under the Working Time Regulations of 28 days including Bank Holidays.

So, what should you do?

We recommend employers check the wording in their employment contacts and Leave/Holiday policies to see if this leave year will be impacted. Common wording in contracts may include:

• 28 days including Bank Holidays : This is fine as employees will still get their full entitlement of the 7 Bank Holidays and 21 days to use at another time.
• 20 days plus all bank holidays : This would be a problem due to there only being 7 Bank Holiday during 1^st April 2024 to 31^st March 2025 this year, meaning that employees would fall below the statutory minimum annual leave required. This could leave you open to risk and you could receive claims for unlawful deduction from wages for underpayment of holiday.

Building a Culture for Success

If you are in this situation we recommend that you give any affected employees an extra day’s leave to be taken before the 31 st March 2025.

For 1^st April 2025 to 31^st March 2026, we are back to 8 Bank Holidays so no need to do anything.

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