Wedding present for staff leaves city with £250,000 bill

The bill to the city council from the royal wedding is racked up because all 16,000 council workers that do not work in schools are set to be told they will get an extra day's holiday in 2011-12.

It will then be up to them whether they take it on April 29, when Prince William weds Kate Middleton, or on another day of their own choice.

Council chiefs have also received approval from the Scottish Government to reduce the school year by one day to 189 days, with all schools now set to close on the day of the wedding - subject to approval by councillors.

It is estimated that the cost of granting the additional day's holiday to non-school staff will be 250,000, although that figure will be considerably higher when the cost of lost productivity is taken into account.

Business leaders estimate that the extra day's holiday will cost private companies in the city millions of pounds.

Council leader Jenny Dawe said: "It looks like the vast majority of workers in the UK will have time off to celebrate the occasion and we feel it would be fair for us to do likewise.

"By making April 29 a fixed one-off additional holiday, it allows those who want to participate in the day's events to do so, while those whose roles are such that they have to work, then they will get a day off in lieu at another time."

The Scottish Government did announce last November that it would name April 29 as an official public holiday.

But it remains up to individual employers whether they accept that guidance and give staff the day off.

Scottish local authority representative Cosla has said granting the holiday was up to individual councils, but Scottish Government officials have written to council chiefs saying that not allowing staff a day off could have an "adverse impact for morale".

The council could have named the day a public holiday, meaning all staff would have been off and any staff that work would have received contractual benefits for working a public holiday.

Jim Inch, the council's director of corporate services, has recommended that it instead grants an additional day's holiday.

Any staff that do need to work would then receive only a normal day's pay and a day off at a later date.

Councillors are due to make a final decision on the issue at a meeting next week.

Private sector companies are facing a similar decision on how to treat the day off, and granting days off is expected to cost several millions of pounds for Edinburgh firms.

Graham Bell, a spokesman for the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "It is a very difficult decision for civic leaders to take at this time. They would not want to disadvantage council workers against the rest of the country, but on the other hand, given the severe need to curtail budgets, and given the reduced cash available, this could be seen to add to their own woes.

"Any employer will have to make this kind of decision. The fact is that different individuals see these things differently.

"I personally think we do not have enough public holidays and productivity suffers as a result."