Holiday Entitlement Increase

The Government has launched a further consultation on the increase of the statutory holiday entitlement to 28 days (pro rata for part timers). Although many employers already provide 28 days paid holiday (20 days holiday plus the 8 Bank and Public holidays) this is a matter of contractual, rather than statutory, entitlement and the current statutory entitlement is for only 20 paid days holiday (which can include the 8 Bank and Public holidays). The changes are likely particularly to affect women, part time staff, younger and low paid workers and workers in the hospitality and retail sectors.

The key proposals are:

1. The phasing in of the additional holiday with 4 extra days from 1 October 2007 and a further 4 days from 1 October 2008;
2. A maximum statutory holiday entitlement of 28 days, although employers may continue to give more contractual holiday than that;
3. Some or all of the additional holiday may be carried over to the following leave year with the mutual agreement of both the employer and worker;
4. Payment in lieu of holiday will not be permitted except on termination of employment;
5. There will be no qualifying service period for the additional holiday entitlement.

The consultation includes draft regulations, a regulatory impact assessment of the proposals and a ready reckoner table for revised holiday entitlements over the next three years. The consultation closes on 13th April 2007. It can be accessed by clicking here.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

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The original publication date for this article was 17/01/2007.