Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022: Are my employees entitled to the extra bank holiday?
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee includes an additional bank holiday in May 2022. Harrison Drury’s employment law team outlines an employer’s position in determining its employees’ rights to the additional bank holiday.
This year, to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, there will be an extra bank holiday in June 2022. The usual May Spring bank holiday in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is also being moved to a different day.
The May Spring bank holiday, which would have traditionally fallen on Monday May 30, will be moved to Thursday June 2. The additional bank holiday will be on Friday June 3, creating a four-day weekend to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee year.
Given the changes, employees may assume they are automatically entitled to an extra day’s leave. Employers may be wondering what they need to do and whether they must give their employees an extra day’s paid holiday this year.
In short, it will depend entirely on the wording of employees’ contracts of employment. Employers should check the terms as soon as possible, to advise staff of their holiday entitlement for 2022, as well as understanding the impact of the long weekend on business operations.
An employee’s entitlement to bank holidays
In any normal year, there are eight bank holidays in England and Wales, with nine days in Scotland and 10 days in Northern Ireland. All nations take the usual Spring bank holiday, which falls on the last Monday in May.
However, not all public holidays are necessarily included as part of an employee’s holiday entitlement under their contract, nor is there an automatic right to have time off on a bank holiday, as it will usually depend on the employer’s policy and business needs. The contractual provisions surrounding bank holidays, and their effect, can vary greatly, for example:
1. The contract confirms that employees are entitled to take the usual bank holidays.
In this case, employees would only be entitled to the normal bank holidays including the rearranged Spring bank holiday on Thursday June 2, 2022. However, they wouldn’t be entitled to take off the additional Jubilee bank holiday on Friday June 3, 2022.
2. The contract confirms that employees are entitled to time off on bank holidays.
Employees would be contractually entitled to a day’s holiday on Thursday June 2 and Friday June 3, 2022 (the Jubilee bank holiday).
3. The contract lists the bank holidays that employees are entitled to take as leave, expressly including ‘the Spring bank holiday’.
In this situation, employees would be entitled to take a day’s leave on Thursday June 2, rather than Monday May 30 (as the day that the Spring bank holiday would usually fall).
However, it is unlikely that most existing contracts will list the Jubilee bank holiday under the holiday provisions. If not, staff would not be contractually entitled to take the day off.
Therefore, it is important to understand the terms, so that they are not breached. Employees need to know what to expect over the coming year; and to help business owners plan cover for their operations.
Flexible contracts and temporary changes to terms and conditions
It is also worth noting that some contracts will allow flexibility as to when bank holidays are to be taken, meaning that some employers may wish to ask certain staff to work on the bank holiday and offer an alternative day off instead. This may be useful to help manage workloads over the four-day weekend created for 2022.
However, where the contractual terms are not so flexible and do not appear to cater for the rearranged Spring bank holiday and the additional Jubilee bank holiday, but employers would like to allow staff the time off, this could be agreed with staff as a temporary change to their terms and conditions (and recorded in writing).
We always recommend taking legal advice on such a proposal, as consultation with staff and trade unions may be required in certain circumstances.
It is important that employers get to grips with their current contractual arrangements as soon as possible, to allow plans to be put in place (by both employers and employees) and any necessary changes to be made.
If you would like advice to help your business review its existing terms and put a plan in place for the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, please contact Harrison Drury’s employment aw team on 01772 258321.