Will you be catering with cucumber or coronation-chicken filled finger sandwiches, for the weekend of celebrations?

Will you remember to switch the words from “Queen” to “King” when belting out our national anthem?

If you’re an employee lucky enough to have a written contract, entitling you to “all bank holidays”, then it is likely that you can enjoy the festivities right up to and including Monday 8 May, away from the workplace, sitting in the sun, drinking jugs of Pimms. The extra day will need to be granted by your employer as annual leave.

Simon Allison is an Employment Partner with Blackadders

If, on the other hand, your employment contract is not so generous, and only entitles you to a specific number of days’ holidays (or, even worse, your contract lists the individual bank holidays), then regrettably, there is no automatic right for you to dust off your best china plates and invite your friends round for a traditional afternoon tea party celebrating the King’s Coronation.

It may be that, in the absence of anything in writing, you can rely on “custom and practice” to enjoy time off on the Bank Holiday. However, a lot will depend on what has happened and been verbally agreed in previous years.

If your employer is open for business on 8 May 2023 and if you want to take the day as leave, then you will require to submit an application for annual leave in the normal fashion and this day will be subject to your normal holiday entitlement. But remember that, even if you are required to work it and you then ask for a day’s leave, your employer is under no obligation to grant this request and, providing that your employer is acting reasonably in its refusal, then you may still require to work. So potentially no “Street Meet” for you and your crew during the long weekend.

Similarly, and regrettably for employees, there is also no automatic right to receive extra pay, should you require to work on 8 May 2023. Any right to “time and a half” or double pay depends, again, on the terms of your employment contract.

Will you be raising a glass to toast the King’s Coronation at a street party – or will you be working on the 8 May bank holiday?

Remember too that, as an employer, part-time employees who do not ordinarily work on a Monday could be entitled to proportionately fewer days off, compared with their full-time colleagues. This may require an employer to provide those part-time employees with a pro-rated bank holiday entitlement, in order to avoid a complaint of less favourable treatment. There is a defence to less favourable treatment for part-time workers however this is notoriously difficult to resist and it seems unlikely that, by offering the part-time workers cheese platters with crackers and crudites on their return to work, the treatment will be justified on objective grounds.

And, as an employer, consider too that, if an employee is not entitled to the long weekend but the employee refuses to attend work in order to watch King Charles be crowned with the 17th-century St Edward’s Crown along with Monday’s TV highlights, then disciplinary action may follow, subject to the employer complying with its own procedures and the ACAS Code.

And woe betide any employee who opts for a duvet day on 9 May, having overindulged with King Charles on his tipple of choice, Martini, the weekend before.

As an employer, when considering holiday requests, consistency is key. An employer should only really refuse holiday requests where there is a good business reason for doing so. If the employer treats employees inconsistently, it runs the risk of a discrimination claim if the employee can demonstrate that the request has been refused for reasons connected with a protected characteristic, such as age, race or religion.

So, take my advice. Don’t bank on a holiday for the King’s Coronation. Check your contract in the first instance, and then assess the position with your employer.

Should you require to attend the workplace on 8 May, why not bring along some non-alcoholic options for your colleagues?.

And should you, like me, have the time off, don’t scrimp on the Union Jack flags or cut back on the mint for your Pimms. And remember to pack your umbrella for the reliable Scottish weather!!

Simon Allison is an Employment Partner with Blackadders and tweets prolifically @EmpLawyerSimon

Don't bank on a coronation holiday - Simon Allison