9. PAID HOLIDAY AND OTHER LEAVE

The right to paid holiday completes the package of working time limits and minimum rest provided for by the Working Time Regulations (WTR), and has proved to be one of the most needed measures, judging from the number of tribunal and EAT cases.

Employers found they could include bank and public holidays as part of the EWTD basic statutory entitlement. That was remedied through an increase in minimum leave in the UK. However, that process created two tiers of statutory entitlement (in addition to any extra contractual entitlement) that has complicated things in some legal cases.

The interaction between paid holiday and sickness absence, also the subject of a number of legal rulings, has proved to be even more significant.