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100 days to the Royal Wedding - is your business prepared?
It's 100 days today till the Royal Wedding on 29th April 2011 - are you prepared from an employment perspective?
Some employers have expressed concern about the operational difficulties the additional bank holiday may bring for them and the additional cost burden, but have you considered the impact on the morale of your staff that any decisions you take about the additional bank holiday may have. How you manage this will depend on what your employment contract actually says.
For example: If your contract states that your employees are entitled to 28 days holiday including bank holidays, what will happen if you insist that your employee's have to take the additional day from their annual leave entitlement? This could lead to some discussions with unhappy employees and you need to be prepared for this. Employers could consider allowing all staff an extra day's holiday as a goodwill gesture which could be a way of promoting good employee relations and show consistency and fairness to all staff, but you need to consider if financially this is a viable option.
As an employer what do I need to do?
Check your contracts of employment to find out what your contractual position is with regards to employee's entitlement to the additional bank holiday. The statutory position of 28 days will remain the same, however your contracts of employment will dictate what employees are entitled to, is it part of their entitlement or awarded as an extra this year? It is strongly advised that the wording is checked so that employers do not fall foul of breaching any contractual obligations, especially as there is an additional bank holiday next year also to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
If you would like assistance checking your contractual position or to talk through your options with an HR advisor, Fidler & Pepper HR Services can help you. Contact Nicola Harthill or Joanne Godson on 01623 4511 11 or email us.
We can help all types of businesses with their people and management needs, for more information take a look at our cost effective HR Service.
Web site content note: This is not legal advice; it is intended to provide information of general interest about current legal issues.
19 Jan 2011
