NEWS: Urgent information for employers regarding The Queen’s funeral and bank holiday
It has been announced that Monday 19 September, the day of The Queen’s funeral, will be a national bank holiday.
We have had plenty of requests from employers since the announcement asking what they are legally required to offer their employees on the day.
There is actually no legal requirement to give employees time off work on bank holidays unless:
- Your employees’ contracts state they will receive all bank holidays regardless of the number of days holidays they receive and/or..
- An employee chooses to exercise their right to emergency (unpaid) time off work e.g. cannot arrange suitable childcare whilst the schools are closed.
Your arrangements
As an employer, you can choose to close your business and pay employees as usual or insist they take the day off as part of their usual annual leave entitlement.
Should you opt for the latter, you must give employees twice as much notice as the length of the annual leave e.g. two days’ written notice for 1 day’s annual leave.
For employers with a lay-off clause in their employee contracts, another option is to exercise a right to lay-off employees for the day. However, this option should be used with caution as it’s usually reserved for situations of a reduction in workload and the employer would need to check their circumstances meet regulations for statutory guarantee pay for employees.
Watch the Queen’s funeral
Should you choose to remain open, consider if you will allow employees to watch some, or all of the funeral, whilst at work.
Or you could work on reduced staffing numbers and grant short-notice requests from employees who wish to use a day of their usual annual leave entitlement in order to watch the funeral at home or travel to London.
If you are working on reduced staff numbers, don’t forget to consult with your safety advisor on fire wardens and first aid arrangements.
Should you wish to discuss any employment arrangements which may be affected, please get in touch.
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