TUC wants 12 bank holidays

The TUC has called for more bank holidays for England and Wales, saying the current eight are “stingy” in comparison with an EU average of 12.8 days. It wants an additional four for England and Wales, two for Northern Ireland and three for Scotland, to bring the total to 12 in each nation.

It said that Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland and Cyprus top the EU table, with 15 days each – nearly twice as many public holidays as workers in England and Wales. And beyond Europe, many workers get more national days off too, with 17 public holidays in Japan, and 12 in Australia.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady commented: “The August bank holiday will be a welcome break for everyone working hard to get us through the pandemic. But after August, there's no national holiday until Christmas”

It is time for a national conversation, she added, asking “When should our new holidays be? What might they celebrate?”.

The union organisation also called on the government to strengthen public holiday rights so people who work bank holidays have the right to premium pay or time off in lieu. And, it says, government should amend the working time rules to ensure that any new public holidays deliver extra time off rather than coming out of existing statutory leave entitlements.

https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/tuc-calls-creation-four-more-bank-holidays-improve-stingy-entitlement