Labour Research September 2004

Law Queries

Bank holiday pay

Q. Does an employer have to pay a worker for bank holidays, and can bank holidays form part of the annual holiday entitlement?

A. Bank holidays are only a statutory entitlement for those working in the banking industry. Outside that industry, there is no statutory entitlement to bank holidays or public holidays, and an employee will only be entitled to paid time off if this is part of their contract.

The current position is that bank and public holidays can be included within the four-week holiday entitlement given under the Working Time Regulations 1998.