Employers not giving Easter Sunday as a holiday

[snoozequeen1]

Are there any employment lawyers who would be so kind and so bold (what an exciting, Mills and Boon, combination) as to venture an opinion on this?

A firm employs a skeleton staff at the weekends. (One or two people). All the staff who have Friday as one of their normal working days, are given Good Friday as a firm holiday, but the firm tells the staff who have Sunday as one of their normal working days, that they must work on Easter Sunday.

Good Friday is not a bank holiday and so the decision to give staff the day off is discretionary.

Easter Sunday is not an official public holiday, but at the time when bank holidays were introduced and at the time when the law was amended, Sunday was a working day for very few people. A survey of the first 10 googled websites purporting to list UK holidays, shows that most of them do list Easter Sunday as a public holiday, i.e there is a widespread custom to treat it as such.

A straw poll of 15 employers in the same sector as the employer in question, reveals two distinct approaches to this issue by employers.

Some firms grant both Good Friday and Easter Sunday as holidays. Some firms grant only those holidays which, as far as we can tell, they are obliged to by law, ie bank holidays, and those which do not grant Easter Sunday as a holiday, do not grant Good Friday either.

How strong is the argument that a firm which gives Friday workers Good Friday as a holiday, but denies Easter Sunday to Sunday workers, is discriminating against the Sunday workers? Especially as it can be shown that the firm is very unusual, and may be unique, in adopting this practice?

Opinions welcome.

[georgia]

Good Friday is actually an official bank holiday in the UK so that's probably why

[Keef]

Yeah my diary lists both Friday and Monday as public/bank holidays. Still, I do think you're pretty hard done by there.

[snoozequeen1]

According to the UK govt website Good Friday is not a bank holiday but a customary public holiday (the same as Christmas Day, which I was a bit surprised to find is not a bank holiday either).

[SteveT]

Is it in your contract?

Has it just been decided to do this, or was it always the case?

Is there extra pay given for these weird working hours?

[snoozequeen1]

(just to mention, this is not an enquiry about self, but on behalf of another)

There is no mention in the contract.

When the person accepted the post, the company in question listed Easter Sunday as a firm holiday on the firm website.

They have subsequently removed that listing, but did not tell any of the employees that they were doing this.

Other staff working on bank or public holidays are paid triple time.

No extra pay has been offered to employees expected to work on Easter Sunday.

Employee argument is that Easter Sunday is exactly the same as Good Friday, ie it is a customary public holiday, and is not listed as such in govt lists simply because Sunday has always been taken for granted as a day off.

[Keef]

S/he needs to speak to their union if they are part of one. Other than that, it looks like they're buggered to be honest.

[????]

Er, all that matters is your contract of employment under working hours and holiday entitlement, what they said on a website etc, in meeting, in the cafe etc is legally irrelevant

[dave]

There's some pretty clear guidance on the principles here, but the news probably won't cheer you up:- http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029788

A couple of things to note - you don't have an automatic right to any enhanced pay on public or Bank Holidays. Everything is governed by your contract and/or your staff handbook if you have one. One of the troubling things about employment law in the last 10/15 years has been the creeping erosion of rights for the lowest-paid workers - while the framework on obligations has been tightened up and we have things like the minimum wage, there are gaping great holes for employers to drive through treating their employees like serfs. It really does come down to the employer and the contract.

[snoozequeen1]

Well. Oh ye of little faith. Ask, and it shall be granted unto thee. Seek, and ye shall find.

The spirit of Easter flourishes verily.

On pointing out the sharply felt anomaly of being required to work on Easter Sunday, parted from friends, family and excess chocolate, said workers have instantly been granted not just one day, but additional annual leave equivalent to the full 8 bank and public holidays enjoyed by their Mon-Fri working colleagues.

Heavens to Betsy, etc.

[Keef]

Bloody hell, that's gone from very stingy to rather over generous to be honest!