Monday 8th May is an additional bank holiday this year due to the King’s coronation. Employers may have already had to manage the introduction of additional bank holidays last year due to the Queen’s platinum jubilee and another to mourn her death. You may need to review your contractual position on bank holidays to assess employer obligations in these situations.
Firstly, there is no statutory right to time off on bank holiday days, but entitlement is usually set out in the contract of employment.
Contracts which provide staff with 20 days’ holiday plus eight bank holidays won’t entitle staff to the additional day. However, if the contract doesn’t set out the specific days which are allocated as bank holidays, then the employee may choose to use part of their bank holiday entitlement to be off on Monday 8th May for the King’s coronation and work one of the other bank holiday days in the leave year. Similarly, should the contract entitle staff to ’28 days including bank holidays’ there will be no obligation to provide an extra day off, but employees may wish to book Monday 8th May as part of their available entitlement, subject to normal processes and approval.
Alternatively, contracts which state employees receive ’20 days annual leave plus bank holidays’ will be contractually entitled to the additional day off.
