While many are proactive and book time off over Christmas well in advance, others don’t. It may be the case that you need staff throughout the Christmas period and so can’t authorise annual leave.

Can I shut the office down over Christmas?

Christmas shutdowns are very common. Any business that slows over Christmas and finds their running costs outweigh their profits will likely close over Christmas. Even if an employee doesn’t want to take Christmas off, they can be required to take it as annual leave. Employers can enforce holiday an employee, meaning that you can instruct them when they are to take holiday from their overall entitlement, but you need to give them the correct amount of notice. The notice you need to give, as a minimum, is double the length of the leave that you want the worker to take. For example, you need to give 4 days' notice if you want the worker to take 2 days' leave. In reality, employers tend to include this requirement in contracts of employment.

What if an employee insists on taking annual leave at Christmas?

There is no obligation to accept all annual leave requests over the Christmas holidays, unless there is anything in your contracts to say otherwise. Because of this, employees can’t insist that they take annual leave at any time. It’s advisable to be clear about the position on taking time off at Christmas early on in an employee’s employment cycle so that there is no confusion, and this can mean being clear about the need to work over that period.

Can I insist that my employees do overtime over Christmas?

Unless an employee’s contact states otherwise, working overtime is voluntary and should be agreed mutually between the employer and employee. Many employers incentivise overtime for this reason by offering enhanced pay or an extra day off, of the employee’s choosing.

Because of this, it’s important to make sure employees’ contracts are written to suit your needs by either requiring a set amount of overtime per week/month or by making it clear that, should a last minute job come in that needs completing, that employees are required to stay until it’s done.

Do I have to give contracts to seasonal staff?

Both employees and workers are entitled to a written contract and this continues to apply if they are brought on as fixed term or casual staff over the Christmas period. The contract that you give them will differ depending on whether they are an employee or a worker.

Can I make staff work on Christmas Day?

If Christmas Day is classed as a normal working day in your business and contracts do not give employees a right to take Christmas Day off, then the employee can be required to work. The same applies to Boxing Day and New Year's Day. These days are commonly Bank Holidays, however, this still does not give employees a right to take those days off. Whether they get to take Bank Holidays off or not should be set out in the contract of employment.