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Many British Workers Are Looking Forward To A 10 Day Christmas Break [1]

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Date: 2022-12-19

On Friday, many white collar British workers will leave work and will not be back at their office or factory until January 4, 2023. The downside of this is that they may be forced to include 1 or 2 days from their minimum of 20 days holiday to do it. Of course there will be some essential workers in over that period so they will likely be paid, possibly at double time and be able to take the time off later. While American readers pick their jaws up from the floor, let me explain.

This year, Christmas and New Year fall over the weekend. Christmas Day, Boxing Day (December 25) and New Year’s Day are Bank Holidays (public holidays) as part of the 8 Bank Holiday vacation days that make up the minimum of 28 days leave a year for everyone, regardless of the time they have worked for the organisation. In their first year of employment this often builds up in 1-2 days per month. Weekends do not count towards the number, the Bank Holidays are moved to the following Monday for Christmas and New Year and 27/12 to compensate for “Boxing Day”. Astute readers may notice that there are three days between 28/12 and the New Year weekend. So how does that work?

Let me give the example of local government workers which were among the first to benefit by this arrangement (before retiring I worked for a London Borough). 20 days plus Bank Holidays dates back to an EU mandate which also defined the standard working week as 35 hours, i.e. typically 9am to 5pm with an hour for lunch. Some organisations use a “flexi time” arrangement so people can fit those hours between 8 and 6 pm providing the office is staffed 10-12 am and 2-4 pm so clients can be sure of contacting someone during those hours, If in the course of a week, they work more than their 35 contracted hours, the extra can be added to annual leave so in theory they can work a 4 day week but typically it people build up an extra day a month. It should be noted that sick leave is completely separate and cannot be used as “personal days” as might be common in the US. You have to get a doctor’s certificate or self-certify that you were ill if less than 3 days.

In addition to the 20 days leave entitlement, many employers offered extra days for long service up to an additional 10 days.

As you will imagine, staff often used some of their annual leave to enable them to take time off from Christmas Eve to January 2 as a block. Employers caught on to this and realised it cost them more to heat and light empty offices than tell their workers to buzz off. Productivity over those days was somewhat reduced by the celebrations anyway.

So they did a deal with the unions — keep a skeleton staff to cope with emergencies and give the others extra days off. (Staff forced to work would be paid overtime rates and get the days off later.) They would then take one or two day’s annual leave so they could take from Boxing Day to New Year’s Day to spend with their loved ones. Factory owners often use this period to maintain the machines on the production line, following the “Wakes Week” traditions in Summer where from the late 19th century virtually all of a town went on holiday as the machinery was serviced.

This concept is in complete contrast to the “presenteeism” often considered appropriate in the US. Someone is expected to work (unpaid) overtime whether they are doing anything productive, in order to be seen as a “good worker” eligible for promotion. British and European emplyers recognise the importance in work/life balance and how fewer hours on their premises results in higher productivity at work. People often study or do leisure activities that add to the skills they bring to work.

Things have come a long way from Dicken’s Scrooge declaring about Bob Cratchett having a paid day off for Christmas

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/19/2142840/-Many-British-Workers-Are-Looking-Forward-To-A-10-Day-Christmas-Break

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