The Government will force businesses to add bank holidays to the annual leave of their employees, should Labour win this summer’s expected General Election, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.
Writing in the Daily Mirror newspaper, Blair said the initiative would benefit two million workers, mostly low paid workers and women, who are currently forced to take bank holidays as part of their annual holiday entitlement.
“A third term Labour government will help those still missing out by ensuring bank holidays come on top of the right to four weeks’ paid holiday,” Blair wrote.
“This Labour government, which gave everyone the right to paid holidays for the first time, is determined to take action,” he added.
The TUC has estimated that some 400,000 full-time workers still get fewer than 12 days of paid leave each year.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber welcomed the move. “This could be the last Easter Bank Holiday that millions of UK workers are forced to take as part of their annual leave,” he said.