The King’s Coronation – Additional Bank Holiday
As part of the UK’s plans to celebrate the King’s Coronation in 2023, it has been confirmed that there will be an additional bank holiday next year. The additional, one-off, bank holiday will fall on Monday 8th May 2023.
Changes to the UK Bank Holidays in 2023
In 2023 there will be an additional bank holiday, taking the total number of public holidays to 9 instead of the usual 8 (in England).
UK Bank Holidays 2023
Monday 2nd January – New Year’s Day (substitute)
Friday 7th April – Good Friday
Monday 10th April – Easter Monday
Monday 1st May – May Day
Monday 8th May – King’s Coronation bank holiday
Monday 29th May – Spring bank holiday
Monday 28th August – Summer bank holiday
Monday 25th December – Christmas Day
Tuesday 26th December – Boxing Day
How will this Affect your Company?
Not all employees have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday. Some companies are clear that they are a 24/7 operation and, depending on the nature of a worker’s role, their contracts may make it clear that bank holidays do not form part of a person’s basic holiday entitlement.
Therefore, the first factor to consider is whether you intend to close to recognise the additional bank holiday or will remain open for business as usual.
Secondly, whether your company will be open or closed, as a gesture of goodwill, do you intend to boost the holiday entitlement for all of your workers by an additional day?
Do we Have to Give Extra Paid Time Off?
A lot will depend on the precise wording of the employees’ terms of employment. Whether you state a collective holiday entitlement (and specify that it is inclusive of bank and public holidays) or whether you identify a set number of holidays and say something along the lines of “plus bank and public holidays”. If you are unsure about the wording in your employees’ statement of terms and/or have existing employees on different variations or old statements of main terms, then get in touch so we can help!
If you choose to be generous, and give an extra day of leave, this should have a positive impact on employee morale and will enable those who can take leave not to need to take a day from their basic entitlement, and those who cannot take leave (due the nature of the work that they do) to take the leave at another time.
In 2022 we had two additional bank holidays. Therefore, when deciding whether, or not, to give additional time off, it is important to adopt an approach similar to that which you have chosen in the past.
What Next?
Take a decision about how you would like to manage the impact of the additional bank holiday and communicate your decision to staff at the earliest opportunity or at a time that is sensible and appropriate for your company.