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Following the
changes employees will no longer have to work for a qualifying
period. They will benefit from the full new holiday entitlement
as soon as they start work. However you can restrict the rate at
which leave is taken during their first year of employment (so
for example, an employee could not take all their holiday in the
first few weeks).
If you already
pay all your full-time and part-time employees for at least 5.6
weeks’ holiday – including bank and public holidays – this
change will not affect you.
It may be
possible, for one year only, to carry the additional holiday
entitlement through to the following holiday year, but the
additional days would have to be taken during that year.
Payment in lieu
may be given instead of the additional holiday, if both worker
and employer agree – but only until 1st April 2009.
Four weeks’ leave must still be taken in each holiday
year. After 1st
April 2009, payment may not be made in lieu of any part of the
basic legal entitlement.
This change
does not make it necessary for employers to issue employees with
new contracts of employment, but employees must be informed in
writing of their new entitlement.
Holiday
calculations may result in an entitlement to part days of
holiday. This entitlement may not be rounded down to the nearest
full day, but apart from this stipulation, the employer may
decide how best to handle part days.
These changes
relate to England, Wales and Scotland. The Department for
Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland is bringing
forward proposals for Northern Ireland.
Obviously,
providing additional paid holidays for your staff is going to
increase your costs. As these changes affect workers too, all
employment agencies supplying agency workers to customers will
face the same cost increases. You should therefore anticipate
higher prices from any such suppliers to your organisation. |
