Employees are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid leave each year.
For employees working five days a week this means 28 days inclusive of public holidays. There is no requirement to give leave on public holidays (in England and Wales there are 8 bank holidays, while in Scotland there are 9).
Compulsory overtime (ie overtime the employer must offer and the employee must work) has to be included in holiday pay. Since 2015, voluntary overtime can be included in holiday pay. Any voluntary overtime that is regularly taken, must also be taken into account when calculating holiday pay. For more information, read Overtime.
Part-time employees should not be treated less favourably than comparable full-time employees in their entitlement to pay and benefits. On that basis, they are entitled to pro-rated holiday entitlement, according to the proportion of full-time hours that they work.
People working irregular hours (commonly on Zero-hours contracts) are entitled to paid time off for every hour that they work. Such workers might find it helpful to get an estimate of holiday entitlement by calculating leave based on days or hours worked in an average week.
When an employee has taken more leave than they are entitled to and their employment has since been terminated, an employer may be entitled to compensation, depending on whether the employee's Employment contract allows for this.