Labour's plan for new Bank Holidays

Yes I am sure Maizie, again you are thinking big business being taken on by the Unions. Do you not know there are many, many small businesses in this country, employ perhaps three or four , even on minimum wage if the employer was forced to pay for 4 extra days holiday it would cost over £1,000

I would like to know the number of employees in full time work for small businesses and the number of zero hours
workers .

Such an obsession with big business, sod the small businesses , I live in an area where there are no big companies apart from supermarkets, coffee shops, book shops, small builders etc , I know many employers whose staff knockoff after their eight hours and the employer works on through the evening .

With only 8 Bank Holidays and the fact that employers can chose to give them as part of a employee's statutory annual leave (of 28 days per annum) this looks like an attempt at trying to make life a little kinder for very hard working British workers. With £57 billion lost in productivity due to poor health and well-being the joy an extra day brings could be well worth it. However, I acknowledge, mostlyharmless, this wouldn't make any difference to those without proper contracts and job security.

I worked all my life in retail or nursing. I hardly ever had a whole Christmas off, even when my children were small. As for the other bank holidays, I was lucky if they fell on my days/nights off! I am another who would have appreciated an extra week annual leave.

My DS has to work Bank holidays as his company is open for trading 7 days a week. He does not get a day off 'in lieu' either!
The Charity shop I volunteer in only closes Christmas Day, Boxing Day & Easter Sunday. The paid staff work every Bank Hol too!

We certainly do NOT need an extra holiday around April/May, not unless they lose the may day one and move that elsewhere so that St Georges replaces it.

I am sorry folks but I honestly can only add my heartfelt feelings, which simply is.........what a load of old tosh!!!
Of course knowing whom is behind this not properly thought out rubbish idea, one cannot expect better.
Bah humbug I say!!

sillynanny your son should check his contract, he should at least get time and a half , or a day off in lieu.
I’m sure that the paid staff of the Charity shop also get days off in lieu or time and a half or even double time as is the norm these days.
My manager at the Charity I volunteered for made it known to us that she worked all hours when we were at home on Bank Holidays, but upon me questioning her she admitted to the days off being given in lieu, she was just trying to make us ( volunteers!!) feel that she was hard done by.

Read Ab's posts, gillybob.. Yesterday at 17.23 and today at 9.17. I was querying them.

As to increased holidays lowering productivity it seems that research is saying that it increases rather than decreases productivity. There's a whole page of google search results on the topic here if anyone wants to explore the concept further

tinyurl.com/y8kcf4nh

I recently read a book about the 19th C moves to regulate working hours for children. The 'shorter working time reduces productivity' argument was used by employers resisting such moves. Do you know that at some periods in some industries children were expected to work 20 hours a day? I know we've moved on from that but the principle of the 'anti more time off' argument is much the same as it was in Victorian times.

Clearly Corbyn has never run a small business . I am a member of several NE manufacturing forums and we are by no means unusual. My employees are paid well and for the hours they work . They are never asked to work above and beyond without recompense . They all take full advantage of (paid) sick leave and have annual dose of flu, sickness etc. I allow paid leave to look after children and would you believe recently a sick dog . They take vans home and help relatives move house at my expense etc. while my DH is hammered with company vehicle tax . My DH works twice as many hours as any of our employees do ( literally) for less than half their average pay . Paid Holidays ? What are they ?

I wish people would look at the bigger picture instead of assuming the worst of employers .

Over the last 12 years DD has worked a 18/7 shift system that recognises neither weekends or bank holidays. For the last 6 years she has worked from home.

However she gets the leave and has quite enjoyed having a shifty life because while it does have its down side, it also has advantages. She lives her life outside rush hours. The pool is never full when she goes swimming, the shops are quiet, popular places are less crowded. She works very early and late shifts so has more free time in daylight.

She is hoping to move to a 9-5 Mon-Fri job in the next few months and while looking forward to weekends and evenings like everyone else and being able to do classes and other activities, which meet weekly. She is also facing commuting by car in the rush hour, and not being able to make the most of all those out of the rush discounts.

Corbyn could increase holidays to as many days as he dreams up in order to buy his votes ( student promises anyone ? ) but at the end of the day the cost will be to all businesses and prices would be forced to rise accordingly .

Who said Labour are anti-religious? I find their values far more Christian (and other religions) than the Tory party's! We have far fewer national holidays than most European countries and I think they give valuable time to hardworking families. I totally support the idea and I'm retired.

Ooh, so much anti-Labour feeling here! I don't care about the Bank Holidays but I'll be out campaigning for Labour candidates for the 3rd May elections.

The LP own my town . No need for canvassing, leafleting etc. They could put a monkey ? up for election and it would win hands down !

but at the end of the day the cost will be to all businesses and prices would be forced to rise accordingly

You're not reading anything I post, are you gillybob?
If extra holidays improve productivity (as research suggests) then the apparent extra cost could be neutralised.

maryhoffman nope, not anti Labour, more anti Corbyn and his daft ideas to buy votes .....bread and circuses.
Yet another badly thought out plan to garner popularity.
gilly maybe they are doing, did you check?

Also tourism benefits, cafes, pubs, restaurants are given a boost and the retail trade benefits from more shopping trips.
The downside is that it costs industry and offices money.
Founder of the CEBR, Douglas McWilliams, said in 2012, "About 45% of the economy suffers; the offices, the factories, the building sites where people tend not to go to work on Bank Holiday."
(Centre for Economic and Business Research).

felicitycelebrant
Why add more ???? I ask .How many in the UK today are aware of the meaning behind a bank holiday other than a day off work with pay.?

I'd be more impressed if they (or SOMEONE) would make the banks recognise Saturday and Sunday as working days - after all, the shops are open on both these days and a lot of people do work the weekends too.

But the banks cling on to the old-fashioned notion that Sat. & Sun. do not exist for them and things like paying in cheques, clearing cheques, sending payments via banks etc, drag on and on because banks stick rigidly to their Mon-Fri antiquated system.

Bring them into the 21st century, for goodness sake!

If we junked George, who was a half-Turkish Palestinian who never set foot in England, and reinstated Edmund, who was the Patron Saint of England before Richard the Lionheart wanted someone more martial to rabble-rouse for the crusades, we would have a perfect new BH - in the middle of November

More bank holidays is a great idea, but perhaps spread throughout the year. It will be funded by Labour collecting taxes properly and not giving huge cuts to bankers, which is what this gov't have done, and run down public services to make us all go private.

An extra bank holiday would not increase the effort of repairing a roof or fixing a leaking pipe Maizie

Brought to mind 'Brenda from Bristol' and "Oh no, not another one!".

OMG what a miserable lot you are! People have been saying for years that we should have more Bank Holidays and that other countries have more than we do. And here are 4 days extra - and you’re turning your noses up! What’s wrong with you?

I wasn't disagreeing with the proposal MillyG - just sayin'.