There have been reports of travel companies confirming a surge in bookings as the Royal wedding coincides with the same week as Easter Monday and is the week before May Day bank holiday, allowing employees the potential for an extended Easter break.
Not everybody is quite excited to see the Prince tie the knot however; the additional bank holiday has a major impact on business and employers. It has been estimated by the Department of Business and the Federation of Small Businesses that the cost to British businesses could be anything from £2 to £6 billion, with the smaller employers and those who operate seven days a week likely to suffer the most.
It is important that employers emphasise to their employees that they need to exercise caution before automatically assuming that they have been given an extra day off to see the future King walk down the aisle. Just because the day has been declared a bank holiday, an employer is not automatically bound to grant their employees a day off work paid or unpaid and may even require such employees to work the day without the right to enhanced pay.
From an employment law perspective there are two determining factors in deciding whether an employee is entitled to paid or unpaid time off for the Royal Wedding. First of all, it depends what the contract of employment states and secondly, if this is not favourable, the employee is wholly dependent on the discretion and generosity of their employer.
The terms and conditions of the employees’ contract and their annual leave provisions essentially decide whether the employee has the legal right to have the “big day” off work either paid or unpaid. Holiday entitlement in the UK is regulated by the Working Time Regulations which entitle all workers to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave, capped at a maximum of 28 days. However, leave entitlement under the Regulations is inclusive of public holidays and there is no statutory right to take public holidays. Whether or not a worker is entitled to be off work on a public holiday is again determined by the contract.
It is vitally important to look at the precise wording of an employee’s contractual holiday entitlement. A contract of employment will usually address holiday entitlement in one of the following ways:
- “The employee is entitled to 28 days holiday per year”
If the contract of employment is worded in a similar manner, then there is no entitlement for the employee to take the Royal Wedding off work unless it is booked as one of their 28 days holiday. In addition, if the employer decides to close the business for the day, as most businesses are expected to do, then the employer is entitled to ask employees to take this day out of their annual leave entitlement. This is not likely to be very morale boosting for the employee, so it is suggested that employers who intend to do this, advise their employee’s as soon as possible to reduce any ill-feeling or resentment.
- “The employee is entitled to 20 days holiday plus the eight named bank holidays, for example Good Friday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day etc”
If the holiday entitlement in the contract of employment is specifically worded to include a certain amount of holiday in addition to the eight bank holidays then employees will not be legally entitled to have the additional bank holiday on the 29th April 2011 off work. However, employers may use their discretion in allowing employees to take the day as paid or unpaid leave.
- “The employee is entitled to 20 days holiday in addition to any bank holidays”
Any contract of employment including the above wording would give the employee the right to take the day off work and if they choose, watch events unfold at Westminster Abbey on the 29th April.
Employers and employees alike would be wise to refer to the wording of their contracts of employment before automatically assuming that they have the 29th April 2011 off work.
Furthermore, those businesses which require operations to continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week will not be able to grant all staff a day off automatically on 29 April 2011. So the message to all those Royalists out there who want to witness the Royal Wedding is get the day booked off as annual leave as soon as possible.
Katherine Sinclair, Solicitor and James Bradley, Trainee Solicitor
Employment