Employees, including those working in the agency, irregularly or on zero-hours contracts are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday in a year. The minimum statutory holiday entitlement cannot be reduced, however, many employers enhance it.
For a full time worker, statutory 5.6 weeks is an equivalent of 28 days. For a part-time employee, 5.6 weeks of holiday change and will be calculated according to the days worked in a week. Workers with irregular hours will be entitled to paid holiday based on the average of the working time of the last 52 weeks or less, if the duration of employment is less than a year.
Annual entitlement can include bank holidays, however, an employer may offer bank holidays in addition to contractual annual leave. Such information should be included in the employment contract.
Holiday should be taken during the “leave year”, which is a 12 month period set by employer. This can be a calendar year, tax year or other company chosen period. Contract of employment should include information when leave year starts and ends.
If a worker gets 28 days’ leave, they can carry over a maximum of 8 days to another year. If the worker gets more than 28 days, employer may allow to carry over additional untaken leave, subject to rules in the employment contract.
If there is another leave entitlement used during the year, for example sick leave, maternity or parental leave, some or all of the holiday entitlement can be carried over to the next year. Workers not able to take annual leave because of sickness must be allowed by the employer to carry over a maximum of 20 days of leave entitlement.
Generally, notice period for taking holiday should be twice as long as the amount of leave plus 1 day. An employer should respond to holiday request of cancel the leave with as much notice as holiday leave requested, plus 1 day. So if the holiday requested is 5 days, you should give the notice to your employer at least 11 days before the holiday. The employer must give you a notice of cancellation or refusal of the holiday request at least 6 days before planned leave. Bear in mind, that employers might have different rules about booking time off and notice period. In that case, rules in the contract will apply.
Employers can restrict employees from taking a leave during certain periods and might also tell the staff when to take the leave, however the notice period for employer should be at least twice as long as the employee leave before it begins.
