Am I entitled to bank holidays?
Across health and social care it’s not unusual for nursing staff to work on bank holidays. While they’re often treated as normal working days, there’s sometimes confusion about leave arrangements and whether staff are entitled to additional time off.
It’s important to understand that although there’s no automatic statutory right to bank holidays or additional payment when working bank holidays, many employers recognise and honour them. Everything you need to know should be included in your contract of employment, look for:
- your annual leave entitlement, and whether this includes bank holidays
- any additional bank holiday allowance, if not included as part of your annual leave
- whether your workplace is open on bank holidays, and if so, whether you may be required to work
- whether you’re entitled to enhanced rates of pay when working a normal shift or overtime shift that falls on a bank holiday.
Some employers calculate leave entitlement in hours while others do this in days. Regardless of the method, every full-time employee has a statutory right to 28 days annual leave which may include bank holidays.
If your workplace is open on a bank holiday and you wish to take leave, you should arrange this with your employer in the normal way and in line with your annual leave or taking time off policy.
Do you work part time?
If you work part time, your bank holiday entitlement may seem confusing. You must be treated fairly and have your annual leave, including bank holidays calculated on a pro rata basis.
Let’s look at an example:
Tayo works a standard full-time contract of 40 hours per week. His contract states that he is entitled to 20 days annual leave plus eight bank holidays.
Kate has a part-time contract for 20 hours per week. In her contract, it states that she is entitled to 14 days leave per year (half of 20 plus half of eight). Here, because Kate works part time her annual leave and bank holidays are shown as one overall total, this is common.
Using your leave
How you use your leave will depend on the hours you work – you may need to keep some hours back to cover bank holiday closures.
Here's another example:
Mei and Laura both work in a GP practice that closes on bank holidays. Their bank holiday allowance is included in their total annual leave allowance and is calculated on a pro rata basis at three-fifths of a full-time employee.
Mei is part time and works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Laura is also part time, working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
As Mei usually works Mondays, she must use some of her leave to cover Monday bank holiday closures. This doesn’t apply to Laura because she works different days. Laura however needs to use her leave for the Good Friday closure. Although this may seem unfair, it’s lawful.
What if I'm sick on a bank holiday?
Sometimes things don’t go to plan and you may be ill over a bank holiday. How your employer treats this depends on several factors.
Bank holidays are included in your statutory leave entitlement
The first question you need to consider is whether your bank holiday allowance is included in your statutory holiday entitlement of 28 days for a full-time member of staff. If so, provided you have followed your employer’s policy to report your sickness absence, you should be allowed a day off in lieu. This is in line with the European Court of Justice judgement Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA [2009].
Bank holidays are given in addition to your statutory leave entitlement
Here, you need to ask yourself two additional questions:
- was your workplace open on the bank holiday?
- were you due to work and if so, had you already booked the day off?
These questions lead us to three main scenarios:
- Your workplace is closed: here, you should be treated the same as if you were not sick that day. If you would normally need to use a day’s leave (for example because you work part time) then you will still need to do this. If not, leave should not be deducted.
- Your workplace was open, you were due to work but were off sick: in this situation annual leave shouldn’t be deducted because you’re ill rather than on leave.
- Your workplace was open, you were due to work but you had booked the day off: if this happens your employer is correct to deduct your annual leave even if you’re sick. If you work in the NHS this is covered in section 14 of the Terms and Conditions handbook. This differs from when you fall sick while on annual leave on a day which is not a bank holiday.
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