Quick question re bank holidays

[ellie]

I work for the welsh NHS and I heard a rumour today that they are stopping our bank holidays and that we will have to take them out of our annual leave (I work 9-5 office hours) - can they actually do this??? I thought bank holidays were statutory for everyone? also I think it's in my contract (although I can't find it) that it's 8 or however many there are, but can they change terms & conditions if they want?

 

[Seraphim]

In my contract I get X number of days holiday, so many of which are taken on bank holidays. That's legal, and essentially says you get less days + bank holidays.

However, if your contract says X days holiday PLUS bank holidays... I would guess they would be rewritingg your contract to enforce this. I'm not sure how those kinda of changes would work.

My guess would be that *new* contracts may not include bank holidays as extra.

Large companies like the Co-op have some employees on really old contracts who have great perks from way back

 

[aimee-lou]

Your contract has to allow for the minimum number of statutory annual leave days (I think that's 20) plus the 8 bank holidays we have in the UK per year.

If you get 28 days holiday already then YES unfortunately they can do this. If you don't then no, as this would mean you're getting less than the minimum by law. I would check on direct.gov to see what the limits are.

Hope you get this sorted hun,

Aimee

 

[aimee-lou]

Just thought...my hubby gets a choice of Time in Lieu OR being paid a day in hand if he works a bank holiday. This is pretty standard for shift workers so maybe they're bringing this in? Just a thought.

 

[Blah11]

Only if you change your contract. I work for the NHS here in lothian and I'm on a newer contract so I take my bank holidays as part of my 7 weeks annual leave. Its like Sunday pay and commitment pay on older contracts.

 

[LoobyLou75]

Yes, they can do this but it would mean changing to contract's T & C's to confirm this. They do have to give reasonable notice to do this however, they cannot enforce changes just like that.

 

[jenstar]

The NHS in Northern Ireland changed bank holidays about two years ago, you now get two less than before. The ones they took away here were Christmas Eve and 13th July (12th and 13th July are hols in Northern Ireland but you still get the 12th.) I think it was part of the Agenda for change.