Proposed Increase in Holiday for UK Workers

The UK Government proposes to increase statutory holiday entitlement to 28 days per year. This will bring the UK more into line with other European countries, although even with this increase UK workers will remain some distance behind their Austrian counterparts who are entitled to a staggering 38 days annual leave.

The Government is currently consulting on raising the current statutory minimum holiday entitlement from 4 weeks to 5.6 weeks, equivalent to an increase from 20 to 28 days for someone working a five-day week. It is proposed that any change will be phased in over a period of time with statutory holidays increasing to 4.8 weeks (24 days) from 1 October 2007. The maximum statutory entitlement will have to increase again on 1 October 2008 to 5.6 weeks (28 days).

These new proposals only affect those employers who currently provide less than 28 days leave.