There is no automatic entitlement to the extra bank holiday on 3rd June 2022 for the Queen’s Jubilee. Whether or not employees are entitled to it depends on the wording of the holiday entitlement clause of the contract of employment of each employee.
There are three possible scenarios:
- If the employment contract states that employees are entitled to, say, 20 days plus bank holidays, then those employees will be entitled to the additional platinum jubilee bank holiday;
- If the employment contract refers to the “usual” bank holidays e.g. “you are entitled to 20 days’ holiday, plus the usual bank holidays in Northern Ireland” then as the extra jubilee bank holiday is not “usual”, there is no contractual entitlement to take it as a bank holiday. Employees can request it, but it would be taken out of their annual leave entitlement, unless of course you decide to exercise your discretion and give it;
- If the employment contract states that employees are entitled to, for example, 28 days inclusive of bank holidays, it will be down to you the employer, to decide whether the additional jubilee bank holiday should be included as part of the 28 days, or not.
Therefore employers are advised to check the wording of their contracts of employment to determine what the contractual position is.
Also note that you are advised to think about the impact on employees of not giving them the extra bank holiday, irrespective of whether legally you are or not obliged to give it. By not granting it, you may have a disgruntled workforce to contend with, especially given the difficulties of the pandemic and circumstances arising from it and you therefore may decide to grant the extra bank holiday as a gesture of goodwill.
