What Happened To Bank Holidays And Overtime.

[cassa333]

When I went to work before I had the kids bank holidays were double time and a day off in lieu if you worked them. If you had the day off you were paid as normal also overtime (above 39 hrs) was time and a half or more

Although I have worked in a school for seven years bank holidays are not an issue as we are paid pro rata holidays.

I have just started work for a large supermarket chain and their is no uplift for over time, it is just the flat hourly rate and bank holidays are only normal rate plus a day off in lieu and no pay if you don't work it regardless of what your normal working week is.

There seems little point in having bank holidays if you can't take them off paid.

[mikey4444]

Cassa....I was an active Trade Unionist all my working life in BT. This benefit was hard fought for but no longer exists. Its indicative of how workers rights have been slowly but surely eroded over the years.

When I worked for a well-known Financial Services company, they forced me to work at Chepstow Race Course, on the Bank Holiday weekend in August, including the Monday. When I responded by taking the Tuesday and Wednesday off, in lieu, you would have thought I had farted in chapel !

But I stood my ground, despite some very nasty threats. It was tough but the right thing to do and I don't regret it all.

[mikey4444]

With the current anti-TU stance of Mrs May, this sort of thing can only get worse.

[THECORBYLOON]

As long as you receive 5.6 weeks of paid leave, your employer is not obliged to allow you time off on a bank holiday and you are not entitled to any pay let alone a higher rate for working overtime unless it says differently in the contract.

Only if the bank holidays are included in the 5.6 weeks and you work on one of them are you entitled to take time off in lieu.

[Old_Geezer]

I think that the issue is whether that is a reasonable in a employment contract. There seems a growing tendency to claim employers can treat employees how they wish and employees should be thankful to have a job and shut up. Bank holidays should never be lumped in with the annual holiday entitlement. To be clear all contracts should accept national holidays as obligatory and show annual leave entitlement separately. Agreement to work a BH and get additional benefit for agreeing should be separate. Also working outside normal core hours should be subject to additional benefit for agreeing to do so.

[mikey4444]

OG....I agree with everything you say, but how likely is it that employment law will be changed under our present Tory regime ?

Especially as Mrs May has broken her very recent promise to have worker representation on the boards of companies.

[naomi24]

I think the problem is life has changed. At one time few people worked Bank Holidays because most businesses were closed on those days. Now, with all the shops in full swing practically all year round, it's difficult to tell one day from another.

[THECORBYLOON]

You say "should" but there is no obligation to do do so. Many employers treat bank holidays as being in addition to the entitlement but as long as they are not outwith the law, the contract terms are ones to look at.

[naomi24]

//Mrs May has broken her very recent promise to have worker representation on the boards of companies. //

I'm not sure she actually 'promised' that, but in any event I'm pleased she's not going to force companies to invite members of the workforce onto their boards. Most people haven't a clue about the way business works.

[mikey4444]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/21/theresa-may-backtracks-on-putting-workers-on-company-boards/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-workers-company-boards-cbi-speech-tory-campaign-promise-inequality-a7429476.html

http://www.itv.com/news/2016-11-21/theresa-may-backs-away-from-workers-on-company-boards-plans-during-cbi-speech/

Etc etc.

[Prudie]

Naomi has hit the nail on the head really, we expect evertything to be open on bank holidays these days, especisally supermarkets. The corby is also correct, as long as you get 5.6 weeks with or without BHs then that's the law. I don't see this as a thread to have ago at the Tories and as for workers on Boards I'm not surprised she changed her mind.

[THECORBYLOON]

When the EU Working Time Directive was introduced, it gave employees the right to four weeks' paid leave, meaning twenty days for folk working the normal five-day week. There are eight bank holidays in England & Wales and when the legislation was introduced here, those bank holidays were added to the twenty laid down by the Directive to give twenty-eight or 5.6 weeks in total.

[mikey4444]

Prudie.....like you, I am not surprised either that Mrs May is doing a u-turn....
I never expected anything different from her.

[naomi24]

Fortunately common sense prevailed.

[vulcan42]

I used to work for a company that decided to become trendy and appointed worker representatives, from day one they never amalgamated and viewed each other with suspicion. Two workers were appointed, voted for by the shop floor, one disagreed with every new proposal and the other agreed with everything. The experiment was abandoned after a year as being "unworkable and unproductive".

[mikey4444]

Vulcan....given your very limited experience, why did Mrs May get behind the idea in the first place ?

[naomi24]

Mikey, read your own links. She initially thought that // too many directors are drawn from the same narrow social and professional circles.//

Fortunately she's now reconsidered.

[cassa333]

In my working life before kids I worked in hotel and catering which is a 24 HR 365 day a year business so weekends and such like were no different to any other day and although there's was not an uplift for weekend work there was for overtime and bank holidays were extra to annual leave so you knew where you stood. If you worked a BH you got an uplift in pay and a day off in lieu but if you had the day off you still got paid for it.

I suppose it is all swings and roundabouts. You get the time off just not on the actual day. Back in my day I could work both Christmas and Boxing Day and would get almost an extra weeks pay and two days off added to new year.

But things change and as Naomi points out we all want to be able to do stuff every day all day so businesses have had to adapt. In reality all we have lost is the up lift pay for working the BH. It's just a bit of a shock when you go back into the workplace lol

I think Tom one degree or another all the political party's are to blame for the employment rules. You can't just blame one party because they don't share your views. If it is the cOnservatives 'fault' that these benefits have gone then it is the oppositions fault also for not changing it when they were in power. What can be given can be taken away. What can be taken away can be reinstated.

[TWR]

If you know a Medium ask him / her to contact the evil M.T. she will explain Cass.

[fiction-factory]

Bank holidays have to be lumped in with other holidays for holiday entitlement purposes, O_G. It ensures part timers and full timers are treated equally in respect of holiday entitlements - for example without prorating someone who only works Tuesday or Saturdays may find no bank holiday coincides with their paid day, whereas someone who works just Mondays gets more than their fair share.

[fiction-factory]

I think you will find the unions are keen to see prorating of bank/public holidays now as they also look after part timers now and have pushed for equal entitlements for part-timers (who are more often women). It's not a Tory/Labour issue. it also helps make the minimum holiday entitlements work fairly