The UK will celebrate an extra bank holiday on Monday 8th May 2023 to celebrate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III.
The Government has announced that the UK is to celebrate an additional one-off bank holiday on Monday 8th May 2023 to mark The King’s coronation. This one-off bank holiday follows two extra bank holidays earlier this year for the Platinum Jubilee and the Queen’s Funeral and will follow the same HR principles as they did.
Following this announcement, the Bank Holidays for 2023 are as follows:
- Monday 2nd January – New Year’s Day (substitute day)
- Friday 7th April – Good Friday
- Monday 10th April – Easter Monday
- Monday 1st May – Early May bank holiday
- Monday 8th May – The King’s Coronation
- Monday 29th May – Spring bank holiday
- Monday 28th August – Summer bank holiday
- Monday 25th December – Christmas Day
- Tuesday 26th December – Boxing Day
There is no indication of any plans for this one-off bank holiday to become an annual occurrence.
Will employees be automatically entitled to the extra bank holiday?
An employee’s entitlement to having the extra bank holiday off will depend entirely on the wording of their contract of employment. Employers are advised to check the wording of their employment contracts and communicate with staff about whether or not they will be required to work.
It is also important to note that employees do not have a legal right to paid time off over a bank holiday – this is down an employee’s contract of employment or employers’ discretion.
Examples of common wording used in employment contracts and their implications for the additional bank holiday:
- Contracts which state employees have a right to 20 days’ annual leave plus time off on 8 public/bank holidays, where the bank holidays are listed and there is no extra flexibility in the wording, will not have an automatic right to time off.
- Contracts which give a right to 20 days’ annual leave plus 8 public/bank holidays but do not list the bank holidays gives the employer some flexibility to move leave around. For example, the employer could give staff this extra day off but require them to work on another public/bank holiday.
- Employees who have a contractual right to all public/bank holidays will be entitled to the extra day off.
- Employees whose contracts give them 28 days’ annual leave including all public/bank holidays have a right to the extra day’s leave, but it will be deducted from their 28 days’ annual leave so effectively they will have fewer days on which to ‘choose’ to take leave.
Where contracts do not include an automatic right to time off, employers can choose to give their employees an additional day of paid leave, or staff can make an annual leave request in the usual way.
If working bank holidays is mandatory in your business, the terms of doing so should be outlined in your employment contracts.
For employees who are required to work on the additional bank holiday, there is no statutory rule regarding extra pay – sometimes known as ‘time and a half’ or ‘double time’ – on bank holidays. This will depend entirely on the wording of the employee’s contract and any custom and practice that has been set at the workplace on previous bank holidays.
Next steps…
We encourage employers to communicate to employees early next year what the company policy is regarding the additional bank holiday, taking into account contractual obligations.
For Breathe HR clients, if you will be recognising 8th May as an extra bank holiday, you should be factoring this in to any part-time employees holiday calculations.
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