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EnergyDo you have a right to take the Jubilee bank holiday off?
Filed under: Your Rights
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PA/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Because many of us may actually discover at the 11th hour, that the only neighbours we'll be spending the Diamond Jubilee with are the people at work with the nearest desks.
Know your rights
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Day off?
Tuesday 5 June is officially a bank holiday. Whether you have the legal right to a day off will depend on how bank holidays are written in your contract. The general rule about minimum time off comes from the Working Time Directive - which states we should all be entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid leave every year - which is about 28 days - or 20 days plus bank holidays.Know your rights
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In some instances this is written as being 20 days plus all public or bank holidays. However, in other cases it as written as being 20 days off plus the 'usual' bank holidays, which means you're not entitled to 5 June off, because it's not one of the usual bank holidays.
Not too late
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "Everyone is looking forward to the Diamond Jubilee weekend. There will be parties and celebrations taking place up and down the country. It's also half-term so many families will be planning to go away. The long weekend will give millions of workers a chance to recharge their batteries and spend much needed time with friends and family. The economic benefits of bank holidays may be hard to be measure, but they are priceless."Sadly hundreds of thousands of staff are likely to miss out on the festivities because some tight-fisted employers are refusing to recognise the Queen's Jubilee and intend to treat the Tuesday as a normal working day. The annoyance and ill-will that will be caused by forcing staff to work while everyone else is out having a nice time will far outweigh any benefits from one extra day in the office. There is still time for employers to do the right thing and give staff a day's paid leave on Tuesday 5 June.
Extra pay?
To add insult to injury, if you have to work the extra bank holiday, this won't necessarily mean you get any extra pay. Again it depends what is written in your contract - if you get double-pay for all public or bank holidays, for example, then you would be entitled to the extra money. If there is no specific stipulation about it in the contract, you may well get nothing.Barber is calling for a rethink on this too. He says: "The many shop workers and emergency services staff that have to work during the bank holiday weekend should not be forgotten either. Extra paid leave and contracted overtime pay is the very least they deserve."
If you are unsure if you are entitled to the time off or not, it's worth checking your contract. If you think it is unclear, and there has been some confusion over how extra bank holidays have been handled in the past, then go to your line manager or HR department and take it up with them.
At the very least they will be able to confirm your position - before you start splashing out on bunting.
10 things we hate about our banks
- 1. PPI<p> More than 46,000 of 106,000 the complaints received by the FOS in the second half of last year related to payment protection insurance (PPI). And the organisation is expecting to receive a record 165,000 PPI complaints in 2012/2013.</p> <p> The huge numbers are due to the PPI mis-selling scandal that should now be a thing of the past, but there is no doubt that the insurance, which can add thousands to the cost of a loan, is highly unpopular!</p> <div> </div> <div> (Pictured: Martin Lewis after the PPI payout ruling)</div>
- 2. Mortgages<p> Complaints about mortgages jumped by 38% in the last six months of last year, the FOS figures show, compared to an increase of just 5% in investment-related complaints.</p> <p> Common gripes about mortgages include the exit penalties imposed should you want to sell up or change you mortgage before a fixed or discounted deal comes to an end, and the high arrangement fees charged by many lenders.</p> <div> </div>
- 3. Savings rates<p> While there is nothing in the data released by the FOS about the number of complaints relating to savings accounts, hard-pressed savers have been struggling with low interest rates for several years now.</p> <p> You can get up to 3.10% with Santander's easy-access eSaver account, but many older accounts are paying 1.00% or less and even this market-leading offer includes a 12-month bonus of 2.60% - meaning that the rate will plummet to just 0.50% after the first year.</p>
- 4. Borrowing rates<p> Banks are imposing the highest authorised overdraft interest rates since records began, with today's borrowers paying an average of 19.47%, according to the Bank of England.</p> <p> A typical Briton with an overdraft of £1,000 is therefore forking out around £200 in interest charges alone. Coupled with meagre returns on savings, it's enough to make your blood boil!</p>
- 5. Penalty charges<p style="text-align: left;"> While authorised overdrafts may seem expensive, going into the red without permission will cost you even more due to huge penalty fees.</p> <p style="text-align: left;"> Barclays, for example, charges £8 (up to a maximum of £40 a day) each time that there is not enough money in your account to cover a payment.</p>
- 6. International transfer charges<p> If you need to send money abroad, the likelihood is that your bank will impose transfer charges - and offer you a poor rate of exchange. Someone transferring a five-figure sum could easily lose out by £500 or more as a result.</p> <p> The good news, however, is that you can often get a better deal by using a currency specialist such as Moneycorp.</p>
- 7. Waiting on the phone<p> <span style="text-align: left; ">Automated telephone banking systems, not to mention call centres in far-flung parts of the world, are one of our top gripes - especially as we often encounter them when we are already calling to report a problem.</span></p> <p> In the words of one disgruntled customer: "What is it about telephone banking that turns me into Victor Meldrew? Well, maybe it's the fourteen security questions, maybe it's the range of products that they try to push or maybe it's because I'm forced to listen to jazz funk at full volume while my phone bill soars.</p> <div> </div> <div> "Actually though, I think it's because the people I eventually speak to rarely seem able to solve the issue I'm calling about."</div>
- 8. Being treated like a number<p> The days of a personal relationship with your bank manager are long gone - for the huge majority of us at least.</p> <p> When ethical Triodos Bank investigated recently why around 9 million Britons would not recommend their banks to a friend or relative, it found that almost a third felt they were not treated as individuals. Another 40%, meanwhile, were simply disappointed with the customer service they received.</p> <div> </div>
- 9. Long queues in branches<p> <span style="text-align: left; ">When you're in a rush, the last thing you want to do is wait in a long queue at your local branch.</span></p> <p> Researchers at consumer champion Which? recently found that most people get seen within 12 minutes, but you could have a much longer wait if you go in at a busy time. Frustrating stuff!</p> <div> </div>
- 10. Bankers' bonuses<p> The Triodos Bank research also indicated that the bonus culture that ensured the bank's high-flying employees received large salaries, even when it was making a loss at the taxpayer's expense, was hugely unpopular with consumers.</p> <p> About a quarter of those who would not recommend their current banks said this was the main reason why. And with RBS executives sharing a £785 million bonus pool despite the bank, which is 82% publicly owned, making a loss of £2 billion last year, it's not hard to see why.</p>
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