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Don’t Forget - Annual Leave and Holiday Entitlement Changes
If you have not yet found out whether you
need to act ready for the forthcoming
changes in employee annual leave; you need
to act quickly or you could face fines as
well as unhappy employees!
From 1st October, the minimum
holiday entitlement for full time employees
will be 24 (up from 20); rising again to 28
days from 1st April 2009.
The law is designed to make sure employees
that do not get bank holidays off as paid
holidays are given the same annual leave
entitlement as those who do. If your
business allows employees to have bank
holidays off, then you may not need
to act under the new legislation.
Here are some tips on meeting the changes,
and how they can affect your business:
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To encourage early implementation and
simplify arrangements for good employers
who decide to offer their workers the
entitlement faster, the regulations
state that those companies who offer
their workers 28 days leave or more by 1
October 2007 and meet certain other
related standards will not be bound by
the new legislation, so long as they
continue to meet these standards.
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As a transitional measure, companies will be
allowed to continue to buy out the
additional leave entitlement (the four extra
days) introduced from October 2007 until 1st
April 2009.
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After 1st April 2009 the buyout of any of
the additional leave entitlement will cease.
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All part-time workers will be entitled to
the extra holiday’s pro-rata.
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The DTI will set up an online calculator to
make it simpler for everybody to work out
their new holiday entitlement.
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Employees who work full time for six days a
week still get the maximum of 24 (then 28 in
April 2009) days leave.
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If you are required to increase your annual
leave levels, you must proportionally add
them to this year’s entitlement. So if your
annual leave year runs from January to
December, you must add three months worth of
the extra leave (to cover October – December
2007):
For example: 4 extra days divided
by 12 months X 3 months =
1 day extra leave this year.
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You must notify your employees in writing of
any increase in holiday entitlement; sending
a letter or adding the message to other
documents (such as pay slips) are two good
methods.
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If your staff already have 20 days (or more)
holiday plus bank holidays; they may ask why
they are not getting extra days off. You
should be prepared to explain that the law
is designed to give people who do not get
bank holidays off the same annual leave
entitlement as they do. They may take a
little while to get over the disappointment
(who doesn’t like extra holidays?!), but
they will appreciate your honesty, and
hopefully recognise that the reason they are
not affected by the change is because you
already treat them well in terms of annual
leave.
If you have not yet looked at how the new
legislation will affect your business, you
need to take action quickly.
More information on employment issues is
available in our You and Work portal.
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