Bank Holidays in 2011

Dec. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- Next year sees the Royal wedding between HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton, with the wedding date now confirmed as April 29th 2011.

With the release of this news, employers and employees are now faced with an additional Bank Holiday at this time. This, coupled with Easter in late April, means that there will be two long weekends within three days of each other.

2011 Bank Holidays:

Friday 22nd April – Good Friday
Monday 25th April – Easter Monday
Friday 29th April – Royal Wedding
Monday 2nd May – Mayday
Monday 30th May – Spring Bank Holiday

Employees and Employers are all understandably concerned about how this will affect them work-wise.

Employers do not necessarily have to give additional time off for extra public holidays. Employers whose businesses run 7 days a week, for example, will have no option other than to maintain their usual staffing levels for their business.

If the employee’s Contract of Employment names specific public holidays, then employees have the right to take these specific days off. Additional time off for extra public holidays, in this case, is entirely at the discretion of the company. If the Contract of Employment does not name specific public holidays, then the decision is based more on usual practice – are extra public holidays normally recognised?

Of course you have the option to voluntarily give an extra paid day of holiday to your staff, or even ask that those who wish to have the day off deduct it from their normal holiday allowance, but this may not be a viable option. Giving all your staff an additional paid day off may mean the difference, if you are a small business, between breaking even or making a loss. Plus, employers should still follow usual procedure of “first come, first served” when receiving holiday requests for this time, meaning that not all staff requests can be accepted.

If you feel you need to close your business on the additional public holiday, but will not be paying bank holiday pay to your staff, you should write to all employees at the earliest opportunity informing them that you will deduct one days holiday from their annual entitlement to cover for this time. This is ideally done as soon as possible, giving at least two clear days notice of your intention before the Bank Holiday.

Bear in mind that however you decide to treat the bank holiday for the Royal Wedding in 2011, (paid time off, use holiday allowance or require them to work,) you are setting the precedent for how your employees will expect you to treat the next Bank holiday in 2012 for the Royal Jubilee.

A final thing to remember is that if you are processing payroll for your staff, and send payment via BACS, their payments will have to be sent a few days early to allow for bank transfers.

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