COVID 19: Rules on carrying over annual leave to be relaxed
27 March 2020
- Government will amend The Working Time Regulations 1998, to allow annual leave to be carried over into the next 2 years
- Business Secretary Alok Sharma has announced today (27 March 2020) that workers who have not taken all of their statutory leave entitlement due to COIVD-19 will now be able to carry it into the next two leave years
- Currently workers lose any untaken annual leave if it is not taken during the holiday year and employers can face financial penalties if they fail to encourage workers to take their statutory leave entitlement
- Amended regulations will allow workers to carry forward up to 4 weeks of unused leave
See the full guidance here.
Aspire Comment
The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 will amend regulation 13 of the Working Time Regulations to allow workers to carry over EU holiday (4 weeks) into the next two leave years, where it is not reasonably practicable for them to take some, or all, of the holiday they are entitled to due to COVID-19.
It is not clear from the press release whether this will only apply to businesses and workers designated as “key” during the current struggles.
If you require any further advice or guidance about how to manage your holiday processes or any other employment guidance, such as furloughing employees, lay off or short time working or redundancy, do get in touch with one of our team on 0121 445 6178.