Holiday Plan Ahead

This is the time of year when most of us think about going on holiday. How much we are entitled to can be a touchy subject.

Time away from work is recognised as an important part of the work/life balance and there is no doubt that it can help reduce stress.

However, it is a fact that the lowest paid often get only the minimum holiday entitlement of four weeks. Under the current law, this four weeks can include bank holidays, so a full-timer may only have 12 days’ holiday which he can take as holiday at a time of his choosing.

So, while some workers get five or six weeks’ holiday plus bank holidays, a lot get four weeks including the eight permanent bank and public holidays.

This does not seem very fair. The Government plans to change the law to increase the current statutory minimum holiday entitlement from four weeks to 5.6 weeks. This means that someone working five days a week will be entitled to 28 days’ holiday a year.

The Government is currently consulting us, the people, about the potential benefits and also the impact (some employers costs will increase) of these plans. If you want to be involved in this process, which ends on 22 September, send an email to annual.leave@dti.gsi.gov.uk . Questions that are asked in the consultation paper are things like, should employees be allowed to carry the extra eight days’ holiday over from one holiday year to another, should employees be allowed to “buy out” the additional entitlement?

The current plans are that the new rights will be phased in. The entitlement will increase from four weeks to 4.8 weeks (equivalent to 24 days for someone working five days a week) from 1 October 2007. The introduction of the full 5.6 weeks will be decided at the end of the consultation process. Watch this space!

Published 27/09/2006.