Working on a Bank Holiday — Rules, Pay & Refusal

Can your employer require you to work on a bank holiday? Yes, if your contract allows it. Can you refuse? Only if your contract gives you that right or if working creates a genuine health and safety issue.

Your contractual position

Most UK retail, hospitality, healthcare and transport contracts include bank holidays as ordinary working days. The contract may set out:

• An obligation to work a fair share of bank holidays in the year
• Notice requirements for the rota
• Premium pay rates (time-and-a-half, double time, etc.)
• Day off in lieu arrangements

Premium pay — only if your contract says so

There is no statutory minimum premium for bank holiday work. Time-and-a-half is common in retail. Double time is common in healthcare. Some sectors (call centres, manufacturing) pay nothing extra. Whatever your contract says, that’s what applies.

If you’ve never worked a bank holiday before

If your contract is silent on bank holiday work and you’ve never been asked, your employer can still introduce a requirement — but they need to consult you and offer reasonable notice. A unilateral, sudden requirement could be a breach of mutual trust and confidence (a contractual implied term).

Special protections

If working a bank holiday clashes with a religious observance you observe regularly, your employer should consider whether refusing to accommodate this amounts to indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Right to refuse

You can decline to work a bank holiday if:

• Your contract doesn’t require you to
• Working would breach the 48-hour weekly working time limit (and you haven’t opted out)
• Reasonable notice wasn’t given
• Refusing is a protected act under equality law