Two Easters in one holiday year?

In 2015 Good Friday and Easter Monday fell on 3 and 6 April.  In 2016, Good Friday and Easter Monday will be on 25 and 28 March.  In 2017, Good Friday and Easter Monday will be on 14 and 17 April.

If you have a fixed holiday year that started on or after 28 March 2015 (most likely on 1 April 2015) you face two issues.

• Two Easters in the holiday year 2015 – 2016, which means an additional 2 bank holidays on top of the common 8. Do you have to ‘give’ these 2 additional days to your staff? Can you require your staff to take these 2 additional days out of that year’s holiday entitlement?
• 2 fewer bank holidays falling in the holiday year 2016 – 2017. Do you have to ‘give’ an additional 2 days to your staff to offset this?

This will be the same if you have various holiday year start dates, perhaps linked workers’ first days of employment and it started on or after 28 March 2015.

If you do not have to grapple with these questions great! But if you do, be sure that these are questions your staff will be asking themselves and then you!  If you are affected the answer lies in your staff’s holiday entitlement and how it is broken down.  Bottom line is that you must make sure that in each holiday year your staff receive, as a minimum, 5.6 weeks’ holiday and, if greater, their contractual holiday entitlement.