In The News: Annual Leave and Covid-19

It was announced by Business Secretary Alok Sharma on Friday 27 March that workers who have not taken all of their statutory annual leave entitlement due to COVID-19 will now be able to carry it over into the next 2 leave years ensuring that employees will not lose their leave entitlements.

Currently almost all employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks (equivalent to 28 days for a full time worker) paid holiday per calendar year including bank holidays. Employees are not normally entitled to carry these days between leave years and those who do not take holiday days would usually lose out. During this time, very few (if any) employees will be asking to take holiday whilst the coronavirus pandemic persists and therefore many employees will have a significant amount of accrued but untaken holiday. The amendment to the Working Time Regulations 1998 will allow employees to carry forward up to 4 weeks of their accrued holiday leave (notably, not the full 5.6 weeks’ entitlement).

Employers have an obligation to ensure their workers take their statutory entitlement in any one year and failure to do so may have previously resulted in financial penalty. The introduction of such a regulation has not only allowed employees to carry over their unused annual leave but has alleviated some of the pressure on businesses from trying to ensure their workers take their statutory leave.

Staff will now be able to continue working throughout the national effort against Coronavirus without losing out on their annual leave entitlements. The changes will also ensure that all employers affected by COVID-19 will have the flexibility to allow workers to carry over leave, at a time when granting annual leave could leave them short-staffed in some of Britain’s key industries, such as hospitality and healthcare.

If you have any issues surrounding annual leave entitlement or any issues surrounding the Coronavirus, we have a blog here, our FAQs are here, and we also have a helpline at [email protected].