In commemoration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, there are changes to the May 2022 bank holidays. This affects both the late May bank holiday with an additional day being added in June ...
Although this will affect an employers operations, it's worth noting that employees do not have the automatic right to time off on bank holidays and their entitlement is normally set out in their contract of employment. I'd advise you to check these contracts to determine their entitlement as working about bank holidays can vary widely.
It is important to ascertain that:
- contractual entitlements are not breached
- employees know where they stand in terms of time off
- employers have sufficient cover on the affected days
It is likely that your contracts of employment contain a list of named bank holidays they are entitled to, but with the movement of one and the addition of another, you need to clarify your position and ensure it is communicated to your employees in a timely manner.
On the other hand, if they simply state that employees are entitled to every bank holiday off, you'll need to think now about cover for the 3rd and 4th of June as well as ensuring employees attend on the 30th of May.
One solution to this is to issue a temporary amendment to employees' contracts of employment, but employers may wish to take an informal approach to time off for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
Just remember to communicate early what you intend to do.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.