News - Legislation |
Increase in statutory minimum holidays 1 October 2007
More holidays
The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007 (the 2007 Regulations) have made some important changes to the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR).
The WTR gave workers certain statutory rights concerning their annual leave, including an entitlement to a minimum of four weeks’ paid holiday (which four weeks included the eight days of bank and public holidays). However, workers did not have a statutory right to a payment in lieu of untaken holiday, except on the termination of their employment, or to carry forward unused statutory holiday. A “worker” has a statutory definition. It includes employees and also people who provide services personally but are not genuinely in business on their own account in that their “employers” are not their customers or clients, such as freelancers.
Many employers already give paid bank and public holidays as well as four weeks’ paid holiday (or 28 days’ paid leave for staff working five days a week) and some may not be affected by the changes.
Briefly, those employers who, as at 1 October 2007, already contracted to provide all their staff with 5.6 weeks’ or 28 days paid holiday (pro-rated for part-timers, regardless of the days they work) do not have to make any changes or provide any increase if the lesser of 1.6 weeks’ or eight days’ holiday can only be replaced by a payment in lieu on termination, can only be carried forward to the following holiday year and is paid at least at the minimum statutory rate.
Those to whom the 2007 Regulations apply should note that they increase the minimum statutory paid holiday entitlement in two stages, so that from 1 April 2009, workers will receive an extra 1.6 weeks’ paid holiday or 8 days’ if they work five days a week. The first stage takes effect from 1 October 2007 to 31March 2009. Minimum statutory paid holiday has been increased by an additional 0.8 week to 4.8 weeks’ or by four days to 24 days, for those who work a five-day week. The second stage, increasing the minimum entitlement by a further 0.8 week to 5.6 weeks (or by another four days to 28 days) takes effect on 1 April 2009. Part-time workers continue to have a pro-rata entitlement.
Workers can now carry forward some unused holiday entitlement in certain circumstances. By agreement, it is be possible to carry forward the element of additional leave (i.e. the extra 0.8 week or 1.6 weeks over and above the four weeks or 20 days) into the next holiday year.
There are transitional provisions enabling an employer to make a payment in lieu of the additional 0.8 week or four days between 1 October 2007 and 1 April 2009.
The BERR and business link websites have some helpful information, particularly, for those employers whose holiday year does not start on 1 October.
The addresses are: http://www.berr.gov.uk/employment
and
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1073858787
These new provisions amount to a change in the terms of an employee’s employment and employers should notify their staff of the change within four weeks of the change to comply with their statutory obligations. The BERR website also has a template letter informing staff at:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/employment
