How can salon owners manage holiday entitlement? Our employment expert explains...
Caroline Johnstone – Senior employment law adviser, WorkNest
If employers are using the NHBF contract of employment and handbook, then any holidays not used in the holiday year are normally lost. However, recent legislation means that employers must take into account periods where annual leave fell during a lockdown.
The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (see Resources) allows up to four weeks’ holiday to be carried forwards for two years. Situations covered could include an employee who was self-isolating and too sick to take holiday before the end of their leave year, or an employee having been laid off or put on furlough. If this means they have a large amount of leave to take (normal annual leave for any year plus days carried forward) in the next leave year, an employer can:
- Tell their employees they need them to take one or two weeks’ leave at a quiet period (specify dates) and give them a deadline to put their requests in by.
- Sufficient time should be allowed to see if they can accommodate the requests and make any changes
- If employees have not made a request by that time, then the employer can enforce the same amount of leave as long as they give the required notice in writing (twice as much notice as the period of leave the employee is required to take).
- Ask employees to put the bulk of their requests in by a certain time (allowing for some last-minute requests, such as weddings or special celebrations).
- Encourage employees to take leave for health and safety purposes to get a break from work.
- They cannot be paid for outstanding holidays, even if both parties might agree to that. The only time you can pay for annual leave is when an employee leaves an organisation.
Employers will have to carefully monitor leave in the next year or so, ensuring leave is encouraged and taken while there are sufficient employees to keep the business going. Normal processes for booking leave should apply.
Extra bank holiday in 2022
To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the government has announced a four-day bank holiday weekend. This means the traditional late May bank holiday is being moved to Thursday 2 June 2022, alongside an additional bank holiday on Friday 3 June 2022.
While there is no statutory right to time off on any public holiday, the entitlement to additional leave on Friday 3 June will depend on the specific wording of your contracts of employment.
Check out the NHBF jubilee fact sheet for more information.
Resources
Click to read the Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020.
NHBF Members can download free copies of the NHBF contract of employment and the NHBF handbook.