British workers have shortest holidays in Europe
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Independent Minds
The UK will still be at the bottom of the European Union league for holidays even after workers are given new rights to paid leave, according to a report published today.
Minimum entitlement in this country is to increase in two stages to 28 days by April 2009 under government moves to stop firms counting public holidays in workers' annual leave.
UK workers are entitled to a minimum of 20 days but if companies include the eight bank holidays in this figure, they are in effect giving staff only 12 days. A study by Incomes Data Services (IDS) showed that workers in other EU countries had more holidays, with Germany topping the league at 39 days a year, including public holidays, followed by Austria , 38, Sweden, 36, Slovakia, Luxembourg and France, 35, Portugal, 34, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, 33, Italy, Spain and Greece, 32 and Poland and Finland, 31.
Ken Mulkearn of IDS said: "The recent legislation is likely to have little impact on those employers who already offer 20 days' leave plus bank holidays. The phasing-in of the changes will help soften the blow." IDS said that even after the changes, the UK would still be joint bottom of the EU league table for holidays. with the Netherlands.
The TUC has estimated that six million workers will benefit from the changes to leave entitlement.
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