Rest days and Bank Holidays

The rest day and public holiday provisions are found in Regulation 26 and Annex H of Police Regulations 2003.

Compensation for duty on a rostered rest day

Where constables and sergeants are required to do duty, or are recalled to duty, on a rostered rest day they are entitled to:

Where less than 15 days’ notice is received - time and one half;

and

In any other case - another rest day which should be notified to the member within four days of notification of the requirement to work.

If the period of duty carried out on the rest day is less than four hours, the appropriate allowance will be paid for a minimum of four hours.

The only exception to this is where the member is retained on duty from a rostered duty or rostered shift into a rest day and the period worked on the rest day is not more than one hour of duty. In these circumstances the minimum four-hour payment does not apply and the rest day time to be reimbursed counts as the number of 15 minute periods actually completed (there is no half hour disregard for casual overtime).

A re-rostered rest day is subject to rest day compensation in the same way as a normal rest day if there is a requirement to work on that day.

When calculating the number of days’ notice given, both the day on which the requirement was notified and the day on which the member is required to do duty are not counted.

Compensation for duty on a public holiday

When required to do duty on a public holiday constables and sergeants are entitled to:

Where less than 8 days’ notice is received – payment of double time plus another day off in lieu, to be treated as a public holiday;

In any other case - payment at double time;

and

if the period of duty carried out on the public holiday is less than four hours, the appropriate allowance will be paid for a minimum of four hours.

A requirement to work on a public holiday with less than 15 days’ notice must be authorised by an officer of least assistant chief constable rank.

Public holiday substitution
Constables and sergeants may, with the approval of their chief officer, substitute a day which is not a public holiday for any day which is a public holiday (as defined in Regulation 3(1) of Police Regulations 2003), with the exception of Christmas Day.

Further information on this provision can be found in Annex E, paragraphs 4a (iii)-(vii) of Police Regulations 2003 and JBB Circular 33/2012.

Work in excess of a tour or rostered shift on a rest day or public holiday
There is no entitlement to overtime on a rest day or a public holiday. All hours
worked attract the same level of rest day or public holiday working compensation.

Time off in lieu – rest day or public holiday
Members may choose to take time off in lieu of any time worked on a rest day or public holiday. The amount of time off varies in accordance with the allowance payable (e.g. if the allowance is double time, the time off is double).

Volunteering to work on a rest day or public holiday
If a member requests to work on a rostered rest day or public holiday the day shall be treated as a normal duty day and the member will be granted another day off in lieu, which shall be treated as a rest day or public holiday (as appropriate).

However, Home Office Circular 39/1985 states that responding to a management request for volunteers should not be treated as a request by the officer concerned to perform duty on the day in question. Therefore, in these circumstances the normal compensation arrangements for rest day or public holiday working will apply.

Reinstatement of cancelled rest days and public holidays
PNB Circulars 85/9 and 86/2 record PNB agreements relating to cancelled rest days or public holidays in anticipation of an operational need, for which in the event the constable or sergeant is not required to attend for duty.

Where more than seven days’ notice is received that the member will not be required to work on the rest day/public holiday, the rest day/public holiday will be taken, with no compensation.

Where seven days’ notice or less is received of the cancelled duty requirement, the member may either choose to take the rest day/public holiday or work and claim compensation in accordance with Police Regulations 2003.

Legal advice suggests there is no entitlement to work a full tour of duty or rostered shift on such days.

Telephone calls received whilst at home
Answering the telephone does not necessarily constitute a recall to duty and therefore may not attract the minimum four hours’ rest day or public holiday compensation provided in regulations.

If a constable or sergeant receives a call which requires necessary action or duty to be performed, this may be a recall to duty, and the member may be eligible for appropriate compensation.

Travelling time treated as duty
Subject to any reasonable limit imposed by the chief officer, travelling time to and from duty on a rest day or public holiday may also count as duty for constables and sergeants. It will not count from the point at which travelling time and the period of duty exceeds six hours.

TOIL and Bank Holidays 

Everyone is given public holiday leave for a Bank Holiday. This over-rides anything else for that day. Meaning if you were due to work you start with public holiday leave and if you were on a rest day you are also shown as public holiday leave and given a rest day in lieu (as you cannot be on a rest day or a normal working day on a Bank Holiday, for everyone it is public holiday leave).

Public holiday leave is the same for all officers and is pro rata. This means that a full-time officer gets the full statutory eight hours public holiday leave for that day. If you were rostered for a shift that was exceeds eight hours then you owe the Force the remaining hours. This is because leave is calculated in hours and not days as this is the fairest way to do it. The same way that an RRD is worth eight hours so if you use it for a day that is over eight hours you have to make up the difference.

When the shift pattern is drawn up the Bank Holidays will be overlaid onto the roster so if the Bank Holiday falls on a day when you are rostered to work a nine-hour shift you will have to work the extra hour somewhere else to make your total hours back up. 

Those who work shifts longer than eight hours often feel this is unfair, however, it isn’t. It is the same as when you book a day’s annual leave you have to use more hours. This is because the reason you work longer shifts is because you get more rest days. If you look at the converse, officers who work five eight-hour shifts with two days off would feel aggrieved if on a public holiday they were getting public holiday leave and getting an eight-hour shift off while someone was getting the same public holiday leave and getting a twelve-hour shift off.

Leave and over-time on a Bank Holiday are totally separate, because the above applies whether you work or not. Although the default is public holiday leave for everyone, the Force must still ensure that it maintains minimum staffing and if it would have been a working day according to your shift pattern you can be required to work. 

However, even if you work in excess of eight hours this does not impact on the hours you owe for the public holiday leave deficit. You would just be paid for any hours you work at double time. So, if the Force did ask everyone to work their normal shifts on a public holiday they would be paid double time for the hours they work. However, they would still owe any hours over the eight given to everyone for public holiday leave to make up the remaining hours of their shift.