AN EMPLOYER'S GUIDE TO THE BANK HOLIDAY FOR HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II STATE FUNERAL

Over the weekend the arrangements for the HM Elizabeth III funeral and any subsequent Bank Holiday were confirmed.

On Saturday it was it was confirmed that State Funeral of HM Elizabeth II will take place on 19th September 2022, this was following the confirmation that this will be treated as Bank Holiday during King Charles’ proclamation, BEIS have now confirmed the details.

As a note, whatever you do, it’s important that you explain your thinking as an employer and let employees understand why you’re taking these steps and how it will work.

When will the Bank Holiday be?

Monday 19 September, the date of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s State Funeral, has been announced as a national bank holiday.

Will it work in the same way?

Pretty much, the guidance from the government is to treat this in the same way as you would normally. As it stands, the normal services will either shut down or work a reduced schedule during the day.

BEIS have pushed any discussion on points of conflict, or decisions on how you manage this, onto employers. We know some will appreciate this freedom and some would prefer a hard and fast set of standards.

Am I obliged to give my employees the time off?

In the main, no, but there is a caveat, as there is always a caveat. This depends on what’s in the contract of employment.

If your contract either states the specific Bank Holidays, or a number of Bank Holidays i.e. 8 days, then that is their allocation for the year and there is no allocation for an additional day.

If the wording is broad and states that an employee is entitled to Bank Holidays, then they are entitled to take the bank holiday.

Also, if your contract states that a Bank Holiday is a normal working day, employees can still be required to work.

Can I ask them to work?

Generally speaking yes.

If the contract means that they don’t have an automatic right to additional Bank Holidays, then that’s fine.

If they have the broad clause, then you can still ask them to work, you can’t require them to work.

In the conversation we had over the weekend, we are encouraging employers to be a bit more flexible on the day, whether that’s different working hours, home working, etc. if they can.

Also, be aware that those with caring provisions, whether it's health services or schools, may need the time off, as schools will close and they have a statutory right to unpaid time off for dependents.

Do I need to pay people?

In general, there’s no obligation for additional pay but we would advise doing what you normally do.

If your contracts are set up that this is a normal working day and employees have no entitlement for an additional Bank Holiday, then you could ask people to take this as a holiday or a day's unpaid leave if they don’t wish to work.

What should we do?

The short notice of this has really caught a number of employers out and given that we have had an additional Bank Holiday already, this makes this feel even more tricky.

What you do depends on how things are set up contractually, what’s happened before and what your demands are.

We have advised a business that really needs the team to work next week to look at the flexibility of hours across the week, explain what the challenges are and give people the freedom of choice. But it’s critical that they understand what the output for the week is and how do you pull together to get there.

Will there be another Bank Holiday for the Coronation?

Simply, we don’t know and we will need to wait for the details as they come.

You can find the full guidance from BESI here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bank-holiday-announced-for-her-majesty-queen-elizabeth-iis-state-funeral-on-monday-19-september