The funeral for Queen Elizabeth II has been scheduled to take place on Monday 19th September and it has been declared a bank holiday in Northern Ireland.
As an employer you are probably wondering what your options are and how you can handle this additional bank holiday for your staff.
BANK HOLIDAY RULES
First of all it is important to understand that there is no statutory entitlement to paid time off on a bank holiday.
Secondly, this new bank holiday declared for the day of the Queen’s funeral on Monday 19th September is to be treated (from employment terms) the same as any other bank holiday i.e. there is no statutory entitlement to paid time off on Monday 19th September.
So what are the rules for bank holidays and employment?
It all depends on what is written in your employment contract, which will generally fall into one of the following categories:
- If your contract states employees are entitled to X days annual holidays plus X days for bank (customary) holidays and lists the ones that the company recognise – then there is no legal obligation on the employer to give their employees paid holiday leave for the Queen’s Funeral Bank Holiday.
- If your contract states employees are entitled to X days annual holiday and ALL bank (customary) holidays – then your employees will be entitled to a paid holiday on the day of the Queen’s Funeral Bank Holiday.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
First things first – check the wording of your contract. Once you know contractually where you stand you must honour that.
Secondly, I would urge all employers to handle this situation sensitively this week and to consider what is the best interest of their employees, their working relationships and their business.
WHAT IF YOU ARE IN THE CATEGORY WHERE YOU DON’T HAVE TO CLOSE BUT WANT TO CLOSE
If you are in the first category and there is no contractual obligation on you to give your employees paid holiday leave for the day of the Queen’s funeral, then you must ask yourself what you want to do?
If you want to close for the Queen’s Funeral Bank Holiday you can do so, at your discretion.
You can either:
- close and give employees an additional day of paid holiday leave
- close and ask employees to use a day from their own entitlement to cover the closure.
LETTER / EMAIL TEMPLATES TO HELP
To help make this as easy for you as possible I have drafted a number of templates for you to use if you wish..
- Template 1 – Employee is entitled to the additional bank holiday (as per contract).
- Template 2 – Employee is not entitled to additional bank holiday (as per contract).
- Template 3 – Employer has decided to close the business on Monday 19th and wishes at their discretion to grant an additional paid bank holiday to employees.
- Template 4 – Employer has decided to close the business on Monday 19th and asks the employee to use a day from their own annual leave entitlement to cover the closure.
- NB: if you wish to do this – you must give twice the notice of the time you wish the employee to use i.e. you want the employee to use 1 x annual leave day to cover the closure, therefore you must give 2 x business day’s notice of the requirement in writing. I recommend putting it in writing by Wednesday 14th September at the latest.
To download the four templates above for free – CLICK HERE
I hope this blog provides some clarity and helps you navigate the conversations around the bank holiday this week.
The above is general information only, and I direct your attention to the disclaimer below. Without sight of your actual contract, I am unable to give specific advice.
Ways I can help you right now:
