Keep an eye on changes to holiday entitlement, warns FPB

  27 November 2007    
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The FPB is warning business owners they should act to avoid confusion over the extra paid holidays their staff have been entitled to since 1 October, when workers' total annual leave entitlement went up from 4 to 4.8 weeks.
 

To help calculate how many days leave staff now have left in the run up to Christmas, and keep track of the annual holiday entitlement owed to full and part-time staff in the new year, members can use the FPB's online holiday entitlement calculator by visiting www.fpb.org/page/391.

"Due to frequent changes in legislation over the last few years, questions on employee holidays have become some of the most frequent received by the FPB's member helpline," said Philip Moody, the FPB's Senior Member Services Representative.

"Holiday entitlement has become very complicated as the variations and permutations that have to be taken into account are endless," he added. "For instance, the calculations for part-time workers and employees working variable hours are very often beyond the ability of many to calculate. Employers often come to us in despair, seeing new changes as another burden on them. As always, the FPB is looking to find cost and time-saving solutions for our members, and we have therefore dedicated a whole section in our new employment guide on how to calculate holiday entitlement."

From 1 April 2009, the minimum statutory holiday entitlement will again increase, this time to 5.6 weeks – or 28 days, if the employee works a five-day week. Firms that offer their employees at least 28 days' annual leave already comply with the regulations.

For part-time employees, holiday entitlement is calculated on a pro-rata basis and cannot be replaced by a payment in lieu. The first four weeks holiday cannot be carried over into the new leave year, but any unused holidays above that may be carried over. By law, leave does not have to be granted for public holidays but, if it is, it can be included in an employee's minimum leave entitlement.

FPB member Marian Lovegrove, of ALS Ltd, a commercial landscaping company based in Reading, contacted the FPB to find out what the changes meant for her firm.

"It's amazing how many people don't know about this," she said. "Few business people I have spoken to realise it applies to them – it hasn't been widely advertised.

"It is a lot to continually check through," she added. "I always double check with the FPB because there have been so many changes to holiday entitlement announced in the last 18 months. If employers are unsure, they should use the holiday calculator on the FPB's website." 

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