According to government sources if you work a five day week, you are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year. This is known as our statutory or annual leave entitlement.
At first sight, 5.6 weeks looks to be an odd number of days, but it refers to a normal working week of five days. Accordingly, the 5.6 weeks translates to 28 working days.
Interestingly, an employer can include bank holidays as part of your annual leave entitlement.
What about part-timers?
Part-time workers are still entitled to 5.6 weeks, but this will be reduced to reflect the number of days a week that they work. For example, if you work a three day week you would be entitled to at least 16.8 days leave in a year (3 x 5.6).
What if I work 6 days a week?
The goal posts to not shift if you work more than 5 days a week. The statutory limit of 28 days still applies.
These paid leave entitlements apply to “workers”. A person is defined as a worker if:
- they have a contract or other arrangement to do work or services personally for a reward (your contract doesn’t have to be written),
- their reward is for money or a benefit in kind, for example the promise of a contract or future work,
- they only have a limited right to send someone else to do the work (subcontract),
- they have to turn up for work even if they don’t want to,
- their employer has to have work for them to do as long as the contract or arrangement lasts,
- they aren’t doing the work as part of their own limited company in an arrangement where the ‘employer’ is actually a customer or client.
A final definition. An employee is a worker with an employment contract. This contract may define other benefits that are not available to worker with no employment contract.