Does your holiday year run from 1st April to 31st March? In 2027, Easter falls in March. This means the bank holidays (Good Friday and Easter Monday) fall into the 2025/26 holiday year. As a result the holiday year 1st April 2026 to 31st March 2027 will have 10 Bank Holidays, instead of the normal 8 bank holidays.
How should you treat this?
You will need to review the precise wording of your contracts of employment as that will determine the correct approach for you.
If your employment contracts state “28 days’ holiday including bank holidays”, you can simply honour the wording to ensure your staff still receive their full entitlement of 28 days. They will not be entitled to the additional bank holidays.
If the employment contract states ‘20 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays’, employees will be entitled to the 2 additional bank holidays.
Where the contract of employment states employees are entitled to 20 days plus 8 bank holidays, it is likely to mean that employees are not entitled to the “extra” two bank holidays and would only be paid for 8 bank holidays.
You can disregard this if your holiday year runs from 1st January to 31st December
