We have been getting a few queries about whether employers have to give employees an extra day off due to the extra bank holiday this year for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Generally speaking, unless an employee’s contract provides for them to be given all bank holidays as leave, there is no entitlement to an extra day’s leave this year.

Employees in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ holiday per year. This equates to 28 days for a full-time employee. Out of these 28 days, an employer may close 10 days of the year around the usual bank holidays / Christmas period. This would leave an employee with 18 days to take at other times of the year to be agreed with the employer.

There is no automatic entitlement for employees to take bank holidays as annual leave, unless the contract provides for this. If a business decides to close on the extra bank holiday, the employer can choose to either require employees to take this as a day out of their annual leave entitlement (by giving notice) or simply close the extra day and gift the employees the day without requiring them to take it out of their annual leave entitlement.

We hope this article has been helpful. Please get in touch if you have any queries.