Our employees have a provision in their contracts of employment stating that they must be present at work the day before and the day after a bank/public holiday in order to receive pay for the holiday. Is this still legal?
Posted in : First Tuesday Q&A NI on 1 February 2011
Arthur Cox
Arthur Cox
As above, employees have a statutory right to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave under the WTR BUT do not have an automatic entitlement to public/bank holidays. Whether a worker can be required to work on a public holiday is a matter for the contract.
Therefore, the condition outlined above is contractually binding and is not contradictory to the WTR as long as the employee is entitled to receive the minimum statutory paid leave throughout the year. It would be unlawful if all the bank holidays are included in the 28 days' entitlement and are not an additional contractual entitlement.
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Arthur Cox
Arthur Cox
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