You need to start thinking about the next Easter 2024 bank holidays!
Keep reading if your holiday year runs from 1 April to 31 March AND you only give the statutory minimum annual leave entitlement (20 days + bank holidays).
In 2024, the Easter bank holidays fall on 29 March and 1 April 2024.
So, if your holiday year runs from 1 April to 31 March, the bank holidays are in two separate holiday years.
This means that there are nine bank holidays in the current holiday year (excluding the extra one we had in 2023 for the King’s Coronation), but only seven in the next holiday year.
So, your employees will be short of one annual leave day, putting them under the statutory minimum.
You therefore have the following options:
- Do nothing! If any employee becomes aware / raises this as an issue, you will need to give them an additional day’s holiday (rather than face a tribunal claim), or
- Increase their annual leave entitlement by one day in the 2024/25 holiday year, so that full-time employees receive 21 days plus seven bank holidays
If your employment contracts say that annual leave entitlement is 28 days inclusive of all bank holidays, your contract wording already covers the issue, so you just need to honour that wording to ensure that your workers still receive 28 days in both holiday years.
NB If you offer above the statutory minimum leave entitlement, or your holiday year is not 1 April to 31 March, you do NOT need to take any action.
If you require any further information, please do let us know.