Due to Easter being late this year, employers with a holiday period that runs from April through March may owe an additional day of leave.
There are eight bank holidays in England and Wales each year. Employees with an April to March annual leave entitlement in 2025 will only be entitled to seven public holidays because Good Friday, Easter Monday and both will fall in April.
According to the Working Time Regulations the minimum statutory holiday entitlement is 28 days (5,6 weeks), including bank holidays. Some employment contracts specify “20 days plus holidays”.
Sarah Collier, partner at Bermans, stated: “Where employee contracts state that they are entitled 28 days, including bank holidays, employers have no problem. The reason is that they will still receive 28 days, regardless of how many bank holidays there are.
However, if the contract stipulates 20 days plus any bank holidays, then staff will only get 27 days of leave in this year. This is less than the minimum legal entitlement.
She advised employers who have a holiday year between April and March to review their arrangements in order to determine if they are affected.
She explained that, “While it’s unlikely this will lead to a large number of employment tribunal cases, given that the compensation is only equivalent to one day’s salary, it may result in staff filing formal grievances if they haven’t received the minimum statutory holidays in this holiday season.”
The time spent by management to resolve workplace grievances is costly and time-consuming.
Collier said: “Employers who are affected but haven’t taken action yet need to decide if they will allow their staff to take an extra day of leave before 31 March or if they want to agree to carry the extra day over to next year’s holiday allowance.”
Next time Easter will fall awkwardly on affected employers, it is in 2027-2028. The Easter long weekends will take place from 26-29 March in 2027, and 14-17 April in 2028. Employees would have only six bank holidays from April 2027 to March 2028.
Employers in Scotland and Northern Ireland are not affected by this issue because they enjoy more bank holidays.
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