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One in four employers fail to give staff a day off for the royal wedding - ELAS

One in four businesses did not give their staff an extra day off for Friday’s royal wedding, a survey has revealed.

A survey of 1,500 SMEs across the UK found that only 69% had decided to give staff the day off as an extra paid holiday,with nearly half of those (43%) doing so begrudgingly as they didn’t think that the event warranted a bank holiday.

Less than a third (31%) of all businesses questioned thought that the royal celebrations warranted an additional day off.

Speaking on Friday,Peter Mooney, of business compliance specialist ELAS, said: “It seems that there won’t be many street parties thrown by business owners today.

“In fact, falling so closely after the long Easter weekend last week and just before May Day on Monday, this extra day off is causing quite a lot of businesses serious headaches, not least over whether or not to give staff today off at all.

Currently, all employees are entitled to a minimum of 28 days holiday a year – which for most people is usually split into 20 days of annual leave plus eight bank holidays.

He added:“This year, there will be nine public holidays, but no change to the number of days off people are allowed – meaning that for many whose employers do close their doors , today’s day off will come out of their annual leave entitlement.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .