Annual Leave and Holidays
Paid Vacation / Annual Leave
Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ (28 days) paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive 28 days’ paid annual leave per year. This is calculated by multiplying a normal working week (5 days) by the annual entitlement of 5.6 weeks. Statutory paid holiday entitlement is limited to 28 days. Staff working 6 days a week are only entitled to 28 days’ paid holiday and not 33.6 days (5.6 multiplied by 6). Workers do not have a statutory right to paid leave on bank and public holidays. If paid leave is given on a bank or public holiday, this can count towards the 5.6 weeks minimum holiday entitlement. However, many employers will provide paid leave on bank and public holidays in addition to the worker’s annual leave entitlement. During the term of annual leave, workers are paid at their weekly rate of pay for the days of annual leave.
Workers can take annual leave in instalments/parts; however, the leave must be taken in the year it became due (i.e. it cannot be carried over to next year), and a worker may not accept a payment in lieu of leave except in the case of employment termination.
Under New Rules (The Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/3322), where the employer has made any unlawful deductions from holiday pay which the employee is entitled to, the employee can only claim for unlawful deductions made within two years from their pay. This will be applicable to claims starting from 1 July 2015. Furthermore, the new rules also provide that the right to payment in respect of annual leave provided for by the Regulations is not intended to operate in such a way as to provide that right under a worker’s contract. It is a separate statutory right.
For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, the holiday rules for irregular-hours workers and part-year workers changed. Their statutory holiday entitlement can accrue at 12.07% of hours worked in a pay period, up to the statutory maximum of 5.6 weeks per leave year.
Rolled-up holiday pay is now lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, provided the employer adds 12.07% of pay for work done, shows it separately on the payslip, and still allows the worker to take leave. Where holiday is paid when taken, the calculation rules continue to use a 52-week reference period in the relevant cases.
The carry-over rules have also been clarified. Up to four weeks of leave under regulation 13 may be carried forward where the worker could not take leave due to statutory family leave, sickness, or because the employer failed to recognise the right to paid leave and to give a proper opportunity to take it. In sickness and employer-failure situations, the carried-over leave is generally subject to an 18-month long-stop.
Source: §13 & 13-A, 15, 16 & 18 of Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended by 2007 Amendment Regulations; Reg. 3 of the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, No. 1426
Pay on Public Holidays
Employees in the UK are entitled to public holiday benefits for the following eight public holidays: New Year’s Day (1st Jan), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May Bank Holiday, Spring Bank holiday, Summer Bank holiday, Christmas Day (25 Dec) and Boxing Day. Bank holidays are holidays when banks and many other businesses are closed for the day. However, public holidays are also referred to as bank holidays, with the two terms often used interchangeably. Bank holidays are legally known to observe closures of banks and financial institutions. Even though all banks are closed on official bank holidays, many shops remain open. Workers do not have an automatic right to paid leave on bank and public holidays in the UK. It is the employer's choice to include a public holiday in the entitled annual leave or provide it in addition to annual leave. (www.gov.uk/bank-holidays)
Weekly Rest Days
Workers have the right to an uninterrupted 24 hours without any work each week, or 48 hours each fortnight. A worker’s employment contract may say they are entitled to more or different rights to breaks from work. An employer should give an employee enough breaks to make sure their health and safety is not at risk if that work is ‘monotonous’ (e.g. work on a production line). Domestic workers in a private house (e.g. a cleaner or au pair) are not entitled to rest breaks for health and safety reasons.
Source: §11 & 23 of the Working Time Regulations 1998; www.gov.uk/rest-breaks -work
Regulations on Annual Leave and Holidays
- Employment Rights Act (ERA), 1996 last amended in 2012
- Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended by 2007 Amendment Regulations)
Paid Vacation / Annual Leave
Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ (28 days) paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive 28 days’ paid annual leave per year. This is calculated by multiplying a normal working week (5 days) by the annual entitlement of 5.6 weeks. Statutory paid holiday entitlement is limited to 28 days. Staff working 6 days a week are only entitled to 28 days’ paid holiday and not 33.6 days (5.6 multiplied by 6). Workers do not have a statutory right to paid leave on bank and public holidays. If paid leave is given on a bank or public holiday, this can count towards the 5.6 weeks minimum holiday entitlement. However, many employers will provide paid leave on bank and public holidays in addition to the worker’s annual leave entitlement. During the term of annual leave, workers are paid at their weekly rate of pay for the days of annual leave.
Workers can take annual leave in instalments/parts; however, the leave must be taken in the year it became due (i.e. it cannot be carried over to next year), and a worker may not accept a payment in lieu of leave except in the case of employment termination.
Under New Rules (The Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/3322), where the employer has made any unlawful deductions from holiday pay which the employee is entitled to, the employee can only claim for unlawful deductions made within two years from their pay. This will be applicable to claims starting from 1 July 2015. Furthermore, the new rules also provide that the right to payment in respect of annual leave provided for by the Regulations is not intended to operate in such a way as to provide that right under a worker’s contract. It is a separate statutory right.
For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, the holiday rules for irregular-hours workers and part-year workers changed. Their statutory holiday entitlement can accrue at 12.07% of hours worked in a pay period, up to the statutory maximum of 5.6 weeks per leave year.
Rolled-up holiday pay is now lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, provided the employer adds 12.07% of pay for work done, shows it separately on the payslip, and still allows the worker to take leave. Where holiday is paid when taken, the calculation rules continue to use a 52-week reference period in the relevant cases.
The carry-over rules have also been clarified. Up to four weeks of leave under regulation 13 may be carried forward where the worker could not take leave due to statutory family leave, sickness, or because the employer failed to recognise the right to paid leave and to give a proper opportunity to take it. In sickness and employer-failure situations, the carried-over leave is generally subject to an 18-month long-stop.
Source: §13 & 13-A, 15, 16 & 18 of Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended by 2007 Amendment Regulations; Reg. 3 of the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, No. 1426
Pay on Public Holidays
Employees in the UK are entitled to public holiday benefits for the following eight public holidays: New Year’s Day (1st Jan), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May Bank Holiday, Spring Bank holiday, Summer Bank holiday, Christmas Day (25 Dec) and Boxing Day. Bank holidays are holidays when banks and many other businesses are closed for the day. However, public holidays are also referred to as bank holidays, with the two terms often used interchangeably. Bank holidays are legally known to observe closures of banks and financial institutions. Even though all banks are closed on official bank holidays, many shops remain open. Workers do not have an automatic right to paid leave on bank and public holidays in the UK. It is the employer's choice to include a public holiday in the entitled annual leave or provide it in addition to annual leave. (www.gov.uk/bank-holidays)
Weekly Rest Days
Workers have the right to an uninterrupted 24 hours without any work each week, or 48 hours each fortnight. A worker’s employment contract may say they are entitled to more or different rights to breaks from work. An employer should give an employee enough breaks to make sure their health and safety is not at risk if that work is ‘monotonous’ (e.g. work on a production line). Domestic workers in a private house (e.g. a cleaner or au pair) are not entitled to rest breaks for health and safety reasons.
Source: §11 & 23 of the Working Time Regulations 1998; www.gov.uk/rest-breaks -work
Regulations on Annual Leave and Holidays
- Employment Rights Act (ERA), 1996 last amended in 2012
- Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended by 2007 Amendment Regulations)
