Bank holidays

A. Your right to be paid on bank holidays will depend on your contract terms. The Working Time Regulations entitle all full-time workers to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year. But these regulations say nothing about how an employer should treat bank holidays.

As long as your contract terms give you 5.6 weeks of paid holiday (reduced pro rata if you work part time), bank holidays can be included within those 5.6 weeks. Alternatively, your contract can provide for paid bank holidays on top of the basic 5.6 week entitlement.

In some cases, your contract terms may require you to work on bank holidays. Whether you are entitled to be paid any extra — or to be given extra time off — for working bank holidays will again depend on your employment contract.

If there is a recognised union at your workplace, there may be a collective agreement about pay rates and other arrangements for bank holiday working.

If you can point to a long-standing, well-known and accepted practice in relation to the treatment of bank holidays at your workplace, your employers established practice may imply this term into your contract.