As an Employer annual leave shortfalls could leave you in hot water

This year as an Employer you need to be aware the potential for a shortfall in annual leave entitlement for 2024/2025.

In our article we take a look at the dilemma potentially faced by you the Employer, how to deal with it, and how to avoid it in the future.

Let’s take a look in more detail:

Why are there less Bank holidays in 2024/2025?

In England and Wales, it is typical that there are 8 bank holidays each year. However, in 2025 Easter falls later, as such there will only be 7 Bank Holidays between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.

This may not be an issue for many, but for some it could cause issues, let’s take a look how…

If as a business, you run your annual leave year April to March it could mean your Employees will receive less than the statutory minimum of 28 holiday days for the year. In this respect we refer to the Working Time Regulations 1998, and by not providing the minimum each year could leave you liable to a claim in an employment tribunal.

How do I know if this breach could affect me?

The devil is in the detail as they say, this is true in how your employment contract terms are worded, here is an example of a breach:

A breach would occur if your employment contracts state ‘20 days plus bank holidays’ in this instance your Employees would only receive 27 days instead of 28, as such 1 day short of their statutory entitlement.

On the flip side, no breach would occur if your employment contracts state ‘28 days including bank holidays’

in this instance your Employees would still receive their full entitlement, eg; 7 bank hols plus 21 days of their choice.

What if my leave year is at any other time?

It is true that the breach would only occur for businesses who’s leave year is April to March and would not affect businesses with any other leave year types, such as January to December.

As an Employer what should you do?

If your terms fall into the potential breach, we would advise the options below:

Give your Employees an extra day of leave before 31 March 2025 to meet the legal requirement

Alternatively, do not do anything and run the risk of your Employees bringing claims for an unlawful deduction from wages, and of course the reputational damage from the public naming and shaming.

We would strongly urge that you do offer the additional day, also worth noting, the same will happen again as Easter will fall early in 2026…we would advise you review your policy detail, contractual terms, and plan accordingly.

How can we help you?

We can help you with your query relating to annual leave, contractual terms, and policies, we are a team of highly experienced HR Consultants who can manage and assist you in any capacity, we have the relevant skills and knowledge to support you, we can work with you on a retained basis, why not contact us for a confidential no obligation chat. 0333 006 9489 or email us at [email protected]