Employers are being warned they could land in hot water with staff over their annual holiday entitlement because Easter falls late this year.
In most years, England and Wales have eight bank holidays between April 1 and March 31.
However, in the current 12-month period there are only seven,due to the Easter weekend falling entirely in April.
Under the Working Time Regulations, the statutory minimum holiday entitlement for employees is 28 days including bank holidays, although some contracts allow for 20 days plus all bank holidays.
Employment lawyer Sarah Collier is urging employers with a holiday year running from April 1 to March 31 to review their arrangements to avoid a potential flood of grievance claims by staff who have not received the statutory minimum entitlement.
Sarah, a partner at north west law firm Bermans, said: “Where staff contracts say they are entitled to 28 days including bank holidays, there is no issue for employers. This is because they will receive their 28 days regardless of the number of bank holidays.
“However, in cases where contracts state 20 days plus all bank holidays, staff would only receive 27 days’ leave this year, which is below the statutory minimum entitlement.
“Employers with April-March holiday years therefore need to conduct a review of their arrangements to double-check their employment contracts, to see whether they are impacted.
“If they are, and they fail to act, this could lead to claims in the employment tribunal for unlawful deduction from wages.
“While it is unlikely that this will result in a significant number of employment tribunal claims, not least given the compensation would only equate to one day’s pay, it could result in formal grievances being issued by staff who have not received the statutory minimum holidays during this holiday year and are seeking realignment of this.
“Workplace grievances can be time-consuming and costly for businesses in terms of both management time and overall productivity. Furthermore, the failure to allocate staff with the statutory minimum holidays would be likely to result in ill-feeling within the workforce, which could result in a possible lack of engagement.
“Affected employers who have not yet taken action need to decide whether to allow staff to take the extra day before March 31, or seek agreement that the additional day’s leave can be carried over into next year’s holiday allocation.”
Sarah also warned employers they may need to review or redraft employment contracts so that annual leave provisions are ‘clear and watertight’ to avoid problems in future years, including those occasions where additional bank holidays are awarded.
She added: “Reviewing contracts and company policies has never been more urgent in light of far-reaching employment law reforms which are anticipated in the coming months.”
