Late May Bank Holiday 2022

Britain will celebrate with an extra Bank Holiday in 2022 for the Platinum Jubilee

The Late May Bank Holiday 2022 will move from Monday 30 May 2022 to Thursday 2 June 2022 with an additional day off on Friday 3 June 2022. Meaning in 2022 there will be nine bank and public holidays in England and Wales instead of the usual eight days (there are usually eight bank and public holidays in Scotland but nine days if St Andrew’s Day is granted as an extra bank holiday, and ten bank and public holidays in Northern Ireland).

The announcement does not increase the statutory entitlement of 5.6 weeks annual leave.

There is no statutory right for employees to take bank or public holidays off work or to receive pay for bank or public holidays if they do not work them. There is also no statutory right to receive time and a half or double time when a bank or public holiday is worked.

However, where the employee’s contract contains clauses outlining a right to time off, payment for time off or extra pay or days off in lieu for bank or public holidays worked then this will override the statutory entitlements.

Therefore, it all depends on how the holiday clause within the contract of employment is written.

Where the employment contract states that the employee’s annual leave entitlement is a specific number of days plus bank holidays for instance 20 days plus bank holidays, that could be interpreted as a contractual right to all bank holidays, however many there are in a year. My advice in this situation is to offer the day as a holiday and if you need to open on the day offer a paid day in lieu.

However, if the contract specifies the number of bank holidays, the employee will not be entitled to an additional day’s leave. Neither will the employee be entitled to an extra day if the contract specifies which bank holidays are included such as 20 days plus New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May, Late May, Summer, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. This means if you want to remain open and staff want to take the day off it would come out of their annual leave entitlement.

Where there is no contractual entitlement to paid time off on the additional bank holiday employees will be able to book annual holiday for the day, you may also consider providing the day as an additional day’s holiday as a gesture of goodwill, where possible, or providing time off in lieu if employees are required to work on that day.

Where employees are entitled to the additional public holiday, or you are considering offering the day as a gesture of goodwill, and you are concerned that your operations may be adversely affected, you may wish to negotiate with your employees over alternative arrangements such as granting a day’s holiday in lieu to be taken at another time or paying a public holiday premium to employees who are required to work on that day. If you do expect your employees to work on that day you should make sure you have the contractual right to require them to work on a public holiday.

For those who work Monday to Friday there is likely to be high demand for three days holiday from Monday 30 May to Wednesday 1 June 2022 as the employee would then benefit from the nine days off work. It is recommended that employees are encouraged to apply early to have annual leave authorised given that it is likely that more employees than usual may wish to take this date as annual leave, especially given that some schools may be closed.

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