Royal Wedding Bank Holiday headache for industry
THIS year’s Royal Wedding could mire the business community in a heated debate over the value and legitimacy of an extra Bank Holiday.
The Prime Minister has agreed to allow April 29 to be deemed a one-off extra Banking Holiday so that people can enjoy the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
However, plans are afoot to make the extra Bank Holiday a regular feature on the calendar.
A Private Member’s Bill tabled before Parliament is proposing to designate St George’s Day (six days earlier than the Royal Wedding), or the nearest working day, as an annual public holiday in England, with effect from 2012.
The Bill also proposes making St David’s Day, or the nearest working day to it, an annual public holiday in Wales with effect from the same date.
The Bill has received its First Reading in the House of Commons and a provisional date for the Second Reading has been set for May 13.
Charles Rae, senior employment associate with law firm Pinsent Masons, said the additional public holiday on April 29 was already causing some employers problems managing requests for time off.
He said Government guidance stated the extra holiday did not increase any entitlement to holiday under the Working Time Regulations and so employers would need to refer back to the wording of the employment contract when assessing whether employees could get the day off.
“Considering the legal issues will require a careful examination of what individual contracts of employment actually say,” he said.
“For instance, we see many contracts that state they will allow employees paid time off on public/bank/statutory holidays without specifying which ones or how many; this would mean that any newly designated bank holidays become a contractual right to a paid day off.
“Some contracts are more specific, such as ones that specify employees are entitled to eight public holidays, or it lists which ones. In those cases the employer won’t be obliged to allow time off whether paid or otherwise as this extra holiday will not be covered by the employees’ contracts.”
He said currently the issue remained a one-off but if the Bill was passed then employers would face a major headache.
Economists have warned the extra day off could also be a major headache for the economy.
They have said that if the Bill becomes law then it threatened to make April one of the most unproductive months of the year, especially with St George’s Day falling so close to Easter.
They said that in some instances, if Easter is delayed then industry could face a Christmas-style shutdown as employees opt to roll the holidays into one long break.
