Important things to remember about the Diamond Jubilee bank holiday
With the movement of the spring bank holiday to Monday 4th June to accompany the extra bank holiday to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, employers will have been given some food for thought. Our human resource consultants here at Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) are here to advise you on such matters as whether you have to give workers the day off, as well as ways of dealing with employees that call in sick on the day.
Of course, as a responsible and forward-thinking employer who may have already made use of our employment law services, you will have probably have already put in place a policy for the Diamond Jubilee, but there are still questions that you will need to ask yourself about that extra bank holiday. To determine whether or not employees will have to be given the day off, for example, you will need to examine your employment contracts for indications of employee entitlement.
Not all employees are automatically entitled to the extra day off, but that is not to suggest that legal matters are all that should concern you, with the former TUC general secretary Brendan Barber warning employers that “the annoyance and ill-will that will be caused by forcing staff to work while everyone else is out having a nice time will far outweigh any benefits from one extra day in the office.”
You may also be concerned about whether employees that do turn up for work are entitled to any premium payments. Our HR specialists advise that although no statutory right in this regard exists for those that work during the Diamond Jubilee, there may still be statements in their employment contracts that entitle them to extra pay, perhaps in the form of half or double time.
The additional bank holiday also brings up the matter of ensuring that part-time employees who are not scheduled to be in work on 5th June are given equal treatment to full-time staff members to whom you decide to give the day off. In this situation, you will need to calculate part-time employees’ pro-rata holiday entitlement, ensuring that – with bank holidays included – these workers end up with the same amount of equivalent leave as their full-time counterparts.
Finally, one danger that can arise for those employers that do force their staff to work on the day is that of such workers phoning in sick when they are actually well, simply so that they can have the day off. You can best deter employees from such unauthorised absences by making clear to them beforehand how you will deal with absenteeism over the period.
For advice on what to include in such an absenteeism policy, as well as for answers to many of your other questions concerning the extra Diamond Jubilee bank holiday, simply contact our HR specialists here at Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) today.
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