Alert over hols time increase

Sep 5 2007 By Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail

MIDLAND firms have been urged to review their holiday practices or risk falling foul of new arrangements on paid leave.

With a big change in the law just around the corner, Birmingham employment lawyers have warned that companies could be caught napping.

From October 1 statutory minimum holiday entitlement increases from 20 days to 24 for normal full-time workers, with a further rise to 28 days a year in April 2009.

The shake-up means that businesses which currently provide less than 24 days paid leave for full-time workers have under a month to get up to speed with the new rules.

Teresa Dolan, partner at Hammonds in Birmingham, said: "As many companies shift their focus from managing staff holidays to concentrating on the job in hand, they would be wise to pay attention to next month's changes, as in some cases they significantly boost the amount of paid holiday that workers are entitled to.

"Failing to provide workers with the correct amount of holiday is a sure fire way for bosses to land themselves in hot water, both with their employees and the law."

Under the current system, employers are allowed to include bank holidays within the 20 days minimum entitlement, so that some workers receive just 12 days holiday to take in their own time, once public holidays are accounted for.

By increasing the minimum entitlement to 28 days by April 2009, the Government is targeting employers to ensure that workers have at least 20 days holiday that they can take when they choose.

"Companies that provide less than 24 days holiday for workers inclusive of bank holidays must act now to ensure they up their provision by the October 1 deadline," she added.