Extra Bank Holiday for Coronation of King Charles in May 2023
The Government has confirmed that, to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6 May 2023, there will be an additional one-off bank holiday on Monday 8 May 2023.
This bank holiday will take effect across the United Kingdom.
Your decision as an employer will depend on how you wish to approach this extra day – contractually or from a goodwill and practical way.
Contractual – different outcomes
If your employment contracts state, for example:
That ‘employees are entitled to take leave on “all bank and public holidays”,’ you as their employer will be required to grant the extra day as leave.
That the employee’s entitlement is to take leave “plus bank holidays” they will be entitled to the additional day off.
That the entitlement is to a certain number of days leave but is silent on the subject of bank holidays, the employee will not be entitled to an additional day’s leave.
If the leave entitlement is expressed as a certain number of days “plus 8 bank holidays” or states which bank holidays are included, the employee will not automatically be entitled to an additional day’s leave.
As you can see, this is not straightforward based on contract alone. Indeed, depending on contract wording, employees do not have an automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday and often payments for bank holidays are given at the discretion of the employer. It is important that employers take into account other factors.
Goodwill and practicality
If an extra bank holiday is announced to mark an exceptional occasion such as the King’s Coronation, even where employees do not have a contractual entitlement to paid time off on the additional bank holiday, employers should consider providing this as a gesture of goodwill, where possible, or providing time off in lieu if employees are required to work on that day.
Employers that ignore the additional bank holiday should be prepared for some level of negative reaction from their employees.
Regardless of contract terms there is no statutory right for employees to take bank holidays as leave, but in the UK, they are widely observed.