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Paid holidays for staff

Sep 27 2006

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The right to paid holidays was introduced by the Working Time Regulations 1998 and came into force on the 1st of October 1998.

Currently statutory annual leave is four working weeks which is usually 20 days (where the worker works a five-day week). The four weeks is proportional if somebody is part-time.

It is likely that government will use the new legislation in the form of The Work and Families Act 2006 to extend the entitlement to 28 days, so for those companies that currently allow just 12 days holiday plus eight Bank Holidays each year (making a total of 20 days) they will be in breach unless they extend their holiday entitlement in line with the new Act to a total of 20 days plus eight Bank Holidays.

However, the good news for employers is that this provision will be gradually phased in and as from October 2007 the entitlement will be raised by four days with the right to take the other four being introduced in October 2008 or 2009.

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