I realise that for full time employees working 5 days per week this equates to 5.6 week or 28 days and these days “can include Bank Holidays”

At this time the employment contact states “25 days holiday plus bank holidays”. So in this respect we are over the required minimum any way. However in this climate it would appear that there are several issues here.

1 As the employee is receiving 25 days plus bank holidays, ethically we should offer the extra days
2. With the current climate this year, taking extra time off would not be an issue and may help
3. As finance is tight no salary award was made this year (normally 1st Jan) so this makes a contribution.

We are a small business here in the UK – 3 employees – and are a wholly owned subsidiary of a German based company.

Can some one provide me with an “industry feel” for this? What are other employers doing?

David Pelling