CWU: what holiday leave are you entitled to?

You’ve got rights around annual leave – here’s what Yorkshire employees needs to know

But whilst booking leave is a normal day-to-day thing for most employees it can nevertheless cause disputes and stress when the employer can’t or won’t grant what the employee is requesting.

Mark Elwen of the CWU explains: “ Whilst holidays may seem like a straight forward entitlement for employees it is actually one of the most complex areas of employment law. There are in fact several different types of holiday; that allowed under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) – the original 4 weeks, then there is the additional eight days, made under an amendment to the WTR, essentially made to ensure employees benefitted from the eight UK public holidays, then the actual public or bank holidays themselves and finally contractual leave which may give some employees additional holiday over and above their statutory entitlement.”

To add to the complication different rules apply to all the different categories of leave, for example public holidays are not an entitlement to have off unless specified in the contract of employment. For statutory holiday entitlement in the WTR, the right to book holiday, the notice period required, the employer’s right to refuse or cancel it or to require when employees take it are all covered, but contractual leave can be treated differently and often is.

Complications further arise when employees are ill or leave employment. Courts as high as the European Court of Justice have made rulings on such matters as whether leave can be taken whilst off sick, whether the employer can refuse this and when and how leave can be carried over or its loss compensated for if the employee has been unable to take it.

“At this time of year we get a number of enquiries from employees about their right to take leave, as can been seen the answer is often not straight forward and with Christmas Day and New Year’s Day falling on Saturdays this year this can also cause confusion, as the bank holiday falls on a different day,” said Mark.

“In short,” says Mark, “If you are unsure about any aspect of your holiday entitlement at any time of year, seek advice from your trade union.”

Find out more at https://www.cwu.org/join-us/