To commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, the late May bank holiday, which would normally have fallen on Monday 30th May 2022, will be moved to Thursday 2nd June 2022 and there will be an additional bank holiday on Friday 3rd June 2022.
Your clients should check employee contracts to determine the effect of the date change and extra day. Contractual wording on Bank Holidays can differ greatly so it is important to identify the specific position.
It may be the case the contract is worded giving employees all Bank Holidays, in which case any days designated as a Bank Holiday this year will need to be given as days off. Alternatively, the contract may specify which days are Bank Holidays, for example “Spring Bank Holiday”, in which case 2nd June can be treated as this Bank Holiday. Where however it is worded as “the last Monday in May” your client will have to either get agreement to change this for 2022 or give them a day off on 30th May (but there would be no requirement to give a day off on 2nd or 3rd).
Some contracts are however more flexible, so employers may ask the employee to work on the Bank Holiday listed and offer an alternative day off instead. This flexibility can be expressed in different ways. A common example is: “You are entitled to the following Bank Holidays, or alternative days as decided by us…”
Employers with contracts that do not reserve any flexibility to nominate alternative days may decide to keep the situation as it is – i.e. treat Monday 30th May 2022 as the ‘Bank Holiday’ and require employees to work on Thursday 2nd June 2022. Alternatively, your client may wish to align their Bank Holidays with the official UK Bank Holidays for 2022, and agree a temporary amendment to employees’ terms and conditions. This could be via informal agreement with staff members.
Should your clients experience resistance to the change but there is a strong business need to change the Bank Holiday days, formal consultation will be needed. Should they employ 20 or more employees who are affected by this, consultation would be needed with representatives for at least 30 days.
There is also the matter of the additional Bank Holiday on 3rd June. Where the contract states the specific Bank Holiday days, or that there are 8 of them, there is no obligation to give an additional day, although your clients may choose to do so, should your clients choose to close on that day. Alternatively they could write to staff to give them notice they will be required to use a day’s annual leave for it, as long as at least two days’ notice is given (twice as much as the leave they need to take) but the more notice the better in these situations, so employees can make appropriate plans for their remaining annual leave.
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