At UHB, we recognise that colleagues celebrate a variety of cultural, faith, and religious events, and we actively encourage them to bring their whole selves to work.

Currently, four out of the eight public holidays in England are based on the Christian calendar, meaning that colleagues who wish to celebrate other religious holidays must use their annual leave entitlement.

In recognition of this, and to further support UHB’s ambition to be an inclusive employer, colleagues will now have greater flexibility to celebrate the religious and cultural observances that matter most to them. They can choose to take the bank holiday, or work it and use the hours on a day that holds more personal significance.

Key principles

• The Flexible Bank Holiday scheme will run from 1 April to 31 March, annually. 
• The request must be made one month in advance of the public holiday that the staff member is selecting to work. 
• The alternate date selected to take leave must be taken in the same annual leave year. 
• Under this proposal, if the service is open and a staff member volunteers to work on the bank holiday before the rotas are finalised or agrees to swap with a colleague already scheduled to work, they will receive the appropriate remuneration. However, colleagues who choose to work on a bank holiday when it is not operationally required will not be eligible for enhanced pay.

Key considerations

• There must be meaningful work that the member of staff can complete on the bank holiday, which should be detailed in the request form. 
• If the staff member's usual place of work is not open, this should not be the sole reason for rejecting an application. Management should consider whether the staff member can perform meaningful work at an alternative location, such as home or another Trust site. 

Recording time worked on a bank holiday

Managers must ensure that the relevant rostering system is updated to reflect a shift worked on a bank holiday, ensuring no enhanced payment is applied where appropriate. In instances where a colleague requests to work on the bank holiday when it is not operationally required, the shift labelled ‘Bank Holiday’ should be used. Please refer to the guidance note on this page for instructions on how to process this.