Will you be 2 days short of statutory holiday allowance in 2016?

Due to the way Easter falls in 2016 and 2017, some companies will be short changing their staff 2 days of their statutory minimum holiday allowance. The statutory minimum is 28 days per year, which most companies work out as 20 days plus bank holidays.

All is well apart from the fact that in 2015, Easter was in April, in 2016 it will be in March and in 2017 in April again. This means that if your holiday year follows the tax year of April to March, there will only be 6 bank holidays in the year 2016-17. Instead, employees are getting 10 bank holidays in the current year 2015-16 because Good Friday is 25th March and Easter Monday 28th March.

If the employment contract states that employees get 20 days plus bank holidays, the employer will be in breach of their statutory requirement to provide 28 days of leave per year unless they arrange for 2 additional top up days in 2016.

Alternatively, the employer could negotiate a variation in employment terms to specify that employees are entitled to 20 days plus EIGHT bank holidays only to regard the 2016 Easter holidays as additional leave days that are not part of their contractual entitlement.

Upcoming England and Wales bank holidays:

Read more about the contractual leave days and Easter bank holidays.