Understanding holiday entitlement

Again I bring up another area that I think sits between what I believe an accountant should know and what a lawyer will know.

I should imagine as accountants we all give our staff at least 20 days holiday plus bank and public holidays, so we are not at risk of breaching the rules. However the purpose of this piece was really to prompt you to consider if any of your clients may be breaching those rules. Especially consider those working in the restaurant business; retail; manufacturing and call centres. I have attempted to summarise the rules below: 

• staff are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave (28 days for someone working five days a week)
• part-time workers are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata (so 5.6 times their usual working week, eg 22.4 days for someone working four days a week)
• the employer can control when staff take holiday
• staff start building up holiday as soon as they start work
• staff get paid normal pay for holiday
• bank and public holidays can be included in your minimum entitlement
• when staff finish a job, they get paid for any holiday not taken
• staff continue to be entitled to holiday leave throughout ordinary and additional maternity leave and paternity and adoption leave

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