While most staff will be entitled to enjoy some time off over Christmas, this will differ depending on your client’s approach and their employees’ contractual terms. Workers that are originally scheduled to work over Christmas may request this time off as annual leave. Your client is free to set their own rules on holidays over the festive period, and if they operate in industries such as retail and hospitality that are currently permitted to remain open, they (your client) may implement a blanket ban, preventing staff from taking leave during this time to cope with increased customer demand.
Alternatively, if your client chooses to allow staff have time off over the festive season, it would be reasonable to require individuals to follow the standard procedure for requesting annual leave. Although your client may be encouraged to favour requests from staff with young children, they should consider that this may lead to accusations of favouritism.
Your client may opt to relax rules on how many staff can be off at the same time over Christmas, especially if the business is expected to be slow. Usually, employers may want to give extra consideration to workers who plan to travel to a different location over the Christmas period, however these workers should be reminded of the current coronavirus travel restrictions, both overseas and within the UK.
If your client shuts down their business temporarily between Christmas and New Year, they can opt to enforce mandatory annual leave to cover this period. For this to work, your client must provide staff with sufficient notice by distributing an email on this matter or including this information within contracts of employment.
Staff that are currently on furlough, and are receiving 80% of their wages, can take the Christmas bank holidays as annual leave, however they need to be paid in full for this time. This means that your client will need to top up their holiday pay by 20%.
Whilst your client does have the flexibility to set their own rules on holidays during this time, they should think carefully about which approach would best support their specific business operations.
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