Additional Coronation Bank Holiday

Additional Coronation Bank Holiday – 8th May 2023

It has been confirmed that following the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6th May 2023, there will be an additional UK bank holiday on Monday 8th May 2023. So what does this mean for employers?

As with the additional bank holidays in 2022 for the Queen’s Jubilee and State Funeral, the employee’s entitlement will depend on the wording in their contract of employment:

• If an employee’s contract is presented as being “plus bank/statutory holidays”, then they would be entitled to receive the additional bank holiday. And if the holiday entitlement is presented as “including bank/statutory holidays”, then they would also be entitled to the extra day, but this would not increase their overall number of paid days leave.
• Alternatively, other contracts may specify that the holidays are “plus eight bank and/or statutory holidays” or “including eight bank/statutory holidays”. In this case, there isn’t an automatic right to have this additional day off. However, if the bank holidays aren’t listed or specified, employers may be able to provide the employee with that particular bank holiday off in exchange for working on another bank/statutory holiday.

However, even if the additional bank holiday would not be applicable based on their contract’s wording, employers can still choose to offer the additional bank holiday to the staff at their own discretion.

If you choose to offer the additional bank holiday, you should ensure that this is presented to staff as a one-off addition, and isn’t a standard provision.

Or you may instead choose to ask employees to book this day off as part of their entitlement.

However, you should ensure that your contracts state that the employer can nominate days to be taken from an employee’s entitlement.

There may also be some employees who are required to work on bank holidays.

Again, this would also be applicable for the additional bank holiday, but it is ultimately at the employer’s discretion as to whether you do require them to work.

Finally, it is important that employers consider the approach they took to the additional bank holidays in 2022.

Ideally, you should aim to take a consistent approach to additional bank holidays, thus reducing confusion for both you and your employees.