UK entitlements to statutory annual leave and public holidays are amongst the lowest in Europe, according to a new study.
The research, by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, reveals that wide discrepancies continue across the EU in paid holiday entitlements. When added together, statutory annual leave and public holidays range from just 28 days in the UK to 39 days in Finland. The average leave and public holiday entitlements across all EU states is 34 days.
The study found that the minimum number of days’ annual leave ranges from 20 to 25. The UK provides just 20 days but the average across the EU is 23 days.
While EU citizens generally have a statutory right to public holidays, this is not the case in the UK, France and Sweden. Although it is common practice to grant public holidays in these countries, employers are within their rights to require employees to work on these days, or to take these as part of annual holiday entitlement.
“Though there have been moves to harmonise employment practices in Europe, there’s still a sizeable gulf in the amount of minimum paid holiday between Member States,” said David Formosa, European Partner at Mercer.
“In countries where leave entitlement is low, it’s common practice for employers to give extra days as an employee benefit,” he added.
One Response
28 days? Isn’t that wrong?
I fail to understand, having not read the full text of the report, where Mercer’s get 28 days paid leave from. The statutory holiday allowance is 20 days in this country, including Public Holidays, and that is what is usually paid by Agencies to contract staff I believe. This seems to be a bone of contention with the Trades Union movement and probably rightly so.
Either way I suppose it still illustrates that the UK is one of the lowest providers of holidays in Europe.