COVID 19 update - Carrying Holiday Leave Forward

As you may be previously aware the government passed new emergency legislation to ensure businesses have the flexibility they need to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and to protect workers from losing their statutory holiday entitlement (The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, laid before Parliament on 27 March 2020).

These regulations enabled workers to carry holiday forward where the impact of coronavirus means that it has not been reasonably practicable to take it in the leave year to which it relates.

Where it has not been reasonably practicable for the worker to take some or all of the 4 weeks’ holiday due to the effects of coronavirus, the untaken amount may be carried forward into “the following 2 years”.

For clarification “the following 2 years” is the period from the start of the holiday year 2020 up until the end of the second holiday year.  For example if the holiday year runs from Jan – Dec , the 2 year window will be from Jan 2020 until December 2022. 

If the holiday year runs from April – March, the 2 year window will be from April 2020 until March 2023.

What is reasonably practicable?

When considering whether it was not reasonably practicable for a worker to take leave as a result of the coronavirus, so that they may carry untaken holiday into future leave years, an employer should consider various factors, such as:

·whether the business has faced a significant increase in demand due to coronavirus that would reasonably require the worker to continue to be at work and cannot be met through alternative practical measures

·the extent to which the business’ workforce is disrupted by the coronavirus and the practical options available to the business to provide temporary cover of essential activities

·the health of the worker and how soon they need to take a period of rest and relaxation

·the length of time remaining in the worker’s leave year, to enable the worker to take holiday at a later date within the leave year

·the extent to which the worker taking leave would impact on wider society’s response to, and recovery from, the coronavirus situation

·the ability of the remainder of the available workforce to provide cover for the worker going on leave

Employers should do everything reasonably practicable to ensure that the worker is able to take as much of their leave as possible in the year to which it relates, and where leave is carried forward, it is best practice to give workers the opportunity to take holiday at the earliest practicable opportunity.