Acas has made recent changes to the section on ‘using holiday’ in their guidance document ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): advice for employers and employees’, relating to the relationship between annual leave rights and furlough under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The key change is the statement that: “Employees or workers who are temporarily sent home because there’s no work (‘furloughed workers’), can request and take their holiday in the usual way, if their employer agrees. This includes bank holidays. Furloughed workers must get their usual pay in full, for any holiday they take”. Another important change is included in the section on ‘Carrying over holiday’. This section continues to confirm that new temporary legislation allows employees and workers to carry over up to 4 weeks’ paid holiday into their next 2 holiday leave years which cannot be taken because of coronavirus, but adds “They may also be able to carry over holiday if they’ve been ‘furloughed’ and cannot reasonably use it in their holiday year”, which suggests that just being on furlough is sufficient to meet the ‘reasonableness’ test. Note that the HM Treasury direction and the HMRC guidance are silent on the issue of holiday entitlement under the CJRS.
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