The impact of Covid-19 and Furlough leave on holiday entitlement (UPDATED)
The impact of Covid-19 and Furlough leave on
holiday entitlement (UPDATED)
30 Mar, 2020
On Friday (27 March), the Government brought into force Regulations allowing workers who have not taken all of their annual leave due to the effects of COVID-19, to carry over up to 4 weeks unused annual leave into the next 2 leave years.
The Regulations have also introduced a restriction on an employer’s right to refuse leave on particular days. Under the new Regulations, the employer will only be able to require a worker not to take carried-over leave on particular days where the employer has ‘good reason’ to do so.
Currently, almost all workers are entitled to a minimum of 28 days holiday including bank holidays each year. However, prior to these new Regulations coming into force, most of this holiday entitlement could not be carried between leave years (with exceptions when a worker could not take annual holiday due to sickness or maternity leave), meaning workers would lose their holiday if they did not take it. There was also an obligation on employers to ensure their workers take their statutory holiday entitlement in any one year.
The Government changes are designed:
to ensure that all employers affected by COVID-19 have the flexibility to allow their workers to carry over holiday at a time when granting annual leave could leave them short-staffed;
to ease the requirements on employers to ensure that their workers take their annual holiday in any one year;
to ensure workers do not lose out on annual holiday entitlement where it was ‘not reasonably practicable’ for them to take some or all of their holiday in the leave year as a result of the effects of COVID-19.
For more information and insight please see our blog ‘The impact of Covid-19 and Furlough leave on holiday entitlement.’
For further information please contact IBB Solicitors’ specialist employment law team today
Our team of specialists are on hand to answer your questions. Please call us on 03456 381381 or email your details to employmentlaw@ibblaw.co.uk and we will get back to you promptly.
The material contained in this article is provided for general purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice. Appropriate legal advice should be sought for specific circumstances and before action is taken.
