Labour Research October 2001

Law Matters

Rights to public holidays

Many workers think that they have an automatic right to paid bank and public holidays. However, apart from bank workers themselves, there is no right to paid time off unless the contract provides for it. In one recent case the Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected a claim from workers that they should have the right to the extra bank holiday on 31 December 1999 as there was no agreement with the employer to have it as a paid day off.