Easter 2024 Holiday Entitlement
Allegedly Spring has finally arrived, which means that Easter is just around the corner. Some of you may have realised that Easter 2024 will span two holiday years for some employers whose holiday year runs with the financial year. This happens every once in a while, and can mean a headache for the holiday entitlement.
Easter 2024 falls between 29th March (Good Friday) and 1st April (Easter Monday).
The early Easter break could mean that employees get 1 extra holiday day in the 2023/2024 year or that Employers risk breaching the working time directive and/or employment contracts because there are only 7 bank holidays (No Good Friday) in the 2024/2025 year. How this affects employers depends on the wording of employment contracts and how their holiday year falls.
If your employment contract does not specify the number of Bank Holidays (e.g. “20 days plus all Bank Holidays”) then as an employer you have a legal obligation to pay all Bank Holidays including ones for other occasions; and in the past years that has been affected by state funerals, coronations and jubilees. However, if your contract does specify the details (e.g. “20 days plus 8 Bank Holidays”) than you have a decision to make this year:
Option 1
Acknowledge the anomaly and close down as normal on Good Friday, giving employees an additional day’s holiday this year.
Option 2
Give employees the option to take 30th March (Good Friday) as unpaid leave or work it. Hopefully you will have had this discussion with employees already.
Option 2 could well have some impact in terms of morale and or good will, particularly if you have not already looked ahead and given employees notice. As an employer you may well now be saying why can’t the extra day in 2023/2024 not be seen in lieu of the reduced days in 2024/2025?
The answer – this would be in breach of the working time directive and possibly your employment contracts. The statutory allowance is 5.6 weeks per year for a full-time employee which is 28 days and can include Bank Holidays of which there are usually 8. So, for 2024/2025 the 28 days would stand but would mean 21 days holiday with the 7 remaining bank holidays.
Our advice is to look at your employment contracts and ensure that you understand the situation and communicate your plans to your employees.
For future reference the next time Easter will create this situation is 2029, so even if you haven’t made advance plans for this year, you will have plenty of time to correct the situation before it happens again.
If you are still confused or need suggestions to navigate this, please contact the team at New Dawn and we would be happy to help.
In the meantime have a Happy Easter!