Great Britain: government launches holiday entitlement guidance campaign

On 02 March, the UK government launched a guidance campaign, the goal of which is make workers aware of their holiday entitlements. Based on a survey by the association called Unpaid Britain, the government revealed that by not taking up their holiday leave entitlements; every year UK workers are currently losing the equivalent of £1.8 billion (€2.06 billion). Workers are unaware of their holiday entitlement rights and in particular those workers undertaking atypical and ad hoc work such as those on zero hours contracts that are provide no set time and no set pay. Business Minister Paul Scully stated, “all workers, regardless of the hours they do, should receive the paid time off they are entitled to. Entitlement to paid annual leave from day 1 in a job is just one of many measures the government has in place to ensure we can all balance work with our personal lives.” The Minister is also looking to encourage employers to check that their employees fully take up their holiday entitlements and that they are paid for them accordingly; and to this end has put a holiday calculator online. Most workers in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks of annual holiday leave.