Employers – Your 2025 leave year could leave you exposed!

14 March 2025

Are your employees losing holiday entitlement in 2025?

You’ll have heard the saying about Christmas coming early, but what about Easter coming late? If your holiday year runs from April to March, and your workers only have the statutory minimum holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations, then you may find that your employees are falling short of a day of their entitlement in the holiday year 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025.

Typically, England and Wales have eight bank holidays per year, but in the leave year 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025, there will be only seven bank holidays due to Easter’s late occurrence. This could leave some workers short on their entitled leave days.

Are your employees affected?

So, if your workers do fall into this holiday year how do you know if they are affected, and what can you do about it? The first thing to do is to look at the employment contract. If the contract stipulates “28 days, including bank holidays” then these workers will have seven bank holidays off work and 21 days remaining. No issue here. However, if the employment contract refers to “20 days, plus all bank holidays” then these workers only have 27 days – taking them below that statutory minimum from the Regulations.

How to avoid holiday entitlement shortfall

If you do have workers falling into this second category, then you have two ways of tackling the issue.  First, you can take no action and wait for any affected workers to raise the matter. However, if you do nothing, this will risk a possible future claim for unlawful deduction from wages. The second, and safest, option for any employer is to simply grant an extra day of leave for the affected workers before 31 March 2025.

Avoiding legal risks

Failure to provide the full statutory leave entitlement could result in legal disputes. Employers should act proactively to prevent any risk of non-compliance. For more guidance, you can refer to GOV.UK Holiday Entitlement or consult an expert.

Need expert advice?

If you need detailed advice on this or any other aspect of employment law, please get in touch with the Employment Team at Backhouse Jones on 01254 828 300 or employment@backhouses.co.uk

This article was written by Catherine Borrett.