Annual holidays

All employees become entitled to four weeks' annual holidays (annual leave) after 12 months of continuous employment.

If an employee has been working less than a year, then they aren’t entitled to annual holidays, but their employer may let them take some of their annual holidays in advance.

If an employee's job ends before they become entitled to annual holidays (and the employer has not been paying annual holidays as paid-as-you-earn) the employer must pay out any outstanding annual holidays at 8% of the employee's total before-tax earnings from the time they started the job to the end.

If you have a workplace issue, you may want to use the Early Resolution Service to resolve it early, quickly and informally.

Early Resolution Service

Annual holidays entitlements

Employees are entitled to four weeks’ annual holidays each year when they have worked for their employer for 12 months.

Pay-as-you-go for fixed-term or changing work patterns

The right to four weeks’ annual holidays per year applies to all types of employees. In limited circumstances some employees may be paid their annual holiday entitlement on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Cashing-up annual holidays

Employees can ask to cash-up up to one week of their four weeks’ minimum entitlement to annual holidays each year.

Annual closedowns

If a business has an annual closedown, employees may have to take their annual holidays entitlement.

Taking annual holidays

In general, employees should be able to decide when to take their annual holidays.

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