It has been confirmed there will be an extra public holiday on 3rd June 2022 which will result in a four-day bank holiday weekend to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The Spring Bank Holiday will be moved to Thursday, 2nd June 2022.
So, how does this affect you and your employees?
As a reminder, there is no statutory right for employees to take bank holidays off work. Any right to time off will be subject to the employee’s contract. Therefore, if an employee works a bank holiday, there is no statutory right to extra pay. For example, an employer is not under an obligation to pay time and a half, unless stated within the contract.
If the employee’s contract specifies the employee is required to work on bank holidays, then the employee cannot refuse to work – even for religious reasons. However, employers should be aware that a refusal to grant an employee of Christian faith time off for any of the bank holidays with religious significance could amount to indirect discrimination if it places them at a particular disadvantage when compared to other employees of differing faiths or are nonreligious.
If the contracts of employment are worded to state that employees are entitled to “statutory entitlement plus bank holidays”, this no longer denotes 20 days’ leave plus eight bank holidays, and therefore the employee would be entitled to the additional bank holiday.
This could be an issue for employers with a holiday year that runs from April to March and the timing of Easter weekend is such that the employee could receive as many as 10 bank holidays in one holiday year or as few as six bank holidays the next year.
Also remember that a part-time worker has the right to not be treated less favourably compared to a full-time worker and this includes bank holiday entitlement.
The best practice and safest approach to part-time employees is to give them a pro-rated allowance of paid bank holidays, irrespective of whether or not they normally work on the days on which the bank holidays fall.
To summarise, below are the dates for the public holidays for 2022:
| 3 January | Monday | New Year’s Day (substitute day) |
| 4 January | Tuesday | Scotland only |
| 17 March | Thursday | Northern Ireland only |
| 15 April | Friday | Good Friday |
| 18 April | Monday | Easter Monday (except Scotland) |
| 2 May | Monday | Early May Bank Holiday |
| 2 June | Thursday | Spring Bank Holiday |
| 3 June | Friday | Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday |
| 12 July | Tuesday | Northern Ireland only |
| 1 August | Monday | Scotland only |
| 29 August | Monday | Summer Bank Holiday (except Scotland) |
| 30 November | Wednesday | Scotland only |
| 26 December | Monday | Boxing Day |
| 27 December | Tuesday | Christmas Day (substitute day) |
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