holidays

Thanks to European law and trade union campaigning, almost everyone at work in the UK has a right to take paid holidays.

Indeed these rights are getting better, as after a strong TUC campaign, the government is closing the loophole that allowed mean employers to count bank holidays such as Christmas Day against the four week minimum.

Holidays rights start building up the first day of a job.

This section deals with the commonest questions about holiday rights.

• What are the entitlements to annual leave?  more...
• How are bank holidays reckoned for annual leave purposes?  more...
• What rate should my holiday pay be set at?  more...
• How is my legal entitlement to holidays calculated as a shift worker?  more...
• How do I work out my holiday entitlement, and take account of the extra holiday from October 1 2007?  more...
• Am I entitled to Bank Holidays and public holidays in addition to the minimum holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations?  more...
• How much should I get paid during my holidays?  more...
• My employer will not agree to my request for holidays in the summer period. What should I do?   more...
• Can my employer make me work on bank holidays?   more...
• Does my employer have to let me carry forward my unused annual leave into the next holiday year?   more...
• I'm leaving a job but haven't taken all my holiday allowance. Can I be paid for the days I lose?  more...
• I want to take a break to travel. Do I have a right to unpaid leave from my job?  more...
• I don't work Mondays. Will I miss out on Bank Holidays?  more...
• Can my employer make me take my holidays when they want, rather than when I'd like?  more...
• What are Bank Holidays?  more...
• Am I allowed time off to attend a job interview?  more...
• I've started a job half way through my company's leave year. How do I work out my entitlement for this year?  more...
• I work a lot of overtime. Does this count towards my pro-rata holiday entitlement?  more...
• Am I entitled to the following Monday off when a public holiday falls on a weekend?  more...
• How soon after I start with a new employer can I use my annual leave?  more...

further information

Download our Know Your Rights leaflet on holidays and rest breaks as a pdf file

(you will need Adobe Acrobat to view this file, click here for free downloads of this software)