From Monday, 1st April annual leave entitlements for all colleagues within ESR and Roster will be updated to include bank holidays.

This means that for colleagues who previously had bank holidays excluded from their leave entitlement, they will see an increased number of hours in their entitlement. These additional hours are their bank holiday leave allocation and will need to be booked in ESR.

For example, a full-time Agenda for Change colleague with 27 days annual leave entitlement pre-April 2023 will show as 202.5 hours (27 x 7.5 hours) entitlement; from April 2024 the same colleague would have 27 days + seven bank holidays for a total 255 hours (34 x 7.5 hours).

Please ensure you book not only your annual leave, but also any bank holiday that lands on one of your normal working days. When booking a bank holiday (on the day or in lieu) it is important that this is recorded as such and not annual leave, as this can potentially have pay-affecting implications.

When booking a bank holiday, the number of hours that would normally be worked on the day should be taken.

For example, a colleague who works part time and normally works four hours on a Monday should book off any bank holiday Monday with a leave reason of ‘bank holiday’ and duration of four hours.

There is no impact to colleague overall annual leave and bank holiday entitlement, only the way in which they are displayed and recorded.