Extra Bank Holiday for Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022

22 Apr

In celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Government have announced the following:

The late May bank holiday has been moved to Thursday 2 June.
An additional bank holiday for the Jubilee will be Friday 3 June.

This means the unusual situation of there being two back-to-back bank holidays in June 2022.

Your decision as an employer will depend on how you wish to approach this extra day – contractually or from a goodwill and practical way.

Contractual – different outcomes

If your employment contracts states, for example:

That ‘employees are entitled to take leave on “all bank and public holidays”,’ the employer will be required to grant the extra day as leave.
That the employee’s entitlement is to take leave “plus bank holidays” they will be entitled to the additional day off.
That the entitlement is to a certain number of days leave but is silent on the subject of bank holidays, the employee will not be entitled to an additional day’s leave.
If the leave entitlement is expressed as a certain number of days “plus eight bank holidays” or states which bank holidays are included, the employee will not be automatically entitled to an additional day’s leave.

As you can see, this issue is not straightforward based on contract alone. Indeed, depending on contract wording, employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday and often payments for bank holidays are given at the discretion of the employer. It is important that employers take into account other factors.

Goodwill and practicality

In the event that an extra bank holiday is announced to mark an exceptional occasion such as the Queen’s Jubilee, even where employees do not have a contractual entitlement to paid time off on the additional bank holiday, employers should consider providing this as a gesture of goodwill, where possible, or providing time off in lieu if employees are required to work on that day.

Employers that ignore the additional bank holiday should be prepared for a negative reaction from their employees.

Thursday 2 June is the rearranged late May bank holiday so it would seem sensible and practical to allow the extra bank holiday on Friday 3 June on this one occasion, regardless of contract terms and there is no statutory right for employees to take bank holidays as leave, but in the UK, they are widely observed.

Bank and public holidays (England and Wales) 2022