Corbyn's idiotic new Bank Holiday promise

[Sheepshanks]

Otispunkmeyer said:

....the fkers on FB are lapping it up, citing we have the least public holidays of many countries and therefore we need more. It doesn't take 5 minutes of google to find that A) whilst we have fewer public holidays, they are kicked about so that we actually get them on week days (places like Germany not so lucky)...

France has several holidays which fall mid-week so they tend to make long weekends out of them.

[Welshbeef]

Sheepshanks said:

Colleagues in France seem to be hardly there in May.

They also seem to take all of Aug off too.

[Shakermaker]

It would mean that I always have the day after my birthday as a bank holiday, so always the excuse for a night out and a beer or two. What's not to like?

Oh, yeah, all the economic stuff that makes it a less feasible idea than the headline suggest...

[heebeegeetee]

It's great watching politicians (who have never made or sold anything in their lives) fight to see who can give away the most of other people's money.

[Puddenchucker]

What's the betting that if this ever went ahead, many employers would reduce their employee's annual holiday allowance by 4 days?

[Ransoman]

Welshbeef said:

What labour should focus on is the forcoming autonomous work where robots take millions of people out of work without anything for hem to do. That's a big issue and it's coming fast - Only the creative roles are safe (ish). How do we survive in a country /world where there are no jobs.

Let's say someone who is a cleaner store assistant etc robots take over those jobs. These individuals through no fault of their own are literally unable to train to upskill to a bigger better job. Those people are then on the junk heap for life. That's a big issue. Then think police men doctors accountants lawyers bricklayers etc all done by robots.

I'm glad I am not the only one that see's that ticking timebomb....

[Puggit]

Sheepshanks said:

France has several holidays which fall mid-week so they tend to make long weekends out of them.

The continentals even have a word for it - making a long weekend is called a 'pont' - (bridge for the non-french speakers!). So for example, Thursday is the holiday, you take Friday off too, and voila, un pont! Germans use whatever bridge is in German

(uber-vasser-strasse?)

[KingNothing]

Puddenchucker said:

What's the betting that if this ever went ahead, many employers would reduce their employee's annual holiday allowance by 4 days?

Probably, as I mentioned before, it would need to be added to the entitlement not just as extra bank holidays; as undoubtably many of the employee's he's trying to bribe probably only get stautory entitlement including bank holidays not as well as bank holidays.

[boyse7en]

Puggit said:

The continentals even have a word for it - making a long weekend is called a 'pont' - (bridge for the non-french speakers!). So for example, Thursday is the holiday, you take Friday off too, and voila, un pont! Germans use whatever bridge is in German

(uber-vasser-strasse?)

That would only be the name from bridges going across rivers...
What about bridges that go over gorges, railways or other roads?
They need an all-encompassing description

(uber-alles-strasse?)
maybe not...

[Rovinghawk]

Brucke

[Puggit]

Rovinghawk said:

Brucke

Spoilsport

[sc0tt]

The bloke is a moron. I'm a contractor so would just lose 4 days money.

[dcb]

Sheepshanks said:

France has several holidays which fall mid-week so they tend to make long weekends out of them.

Germany does something similar.

Lots of holidays on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that only one day booked holiday
(the Monday or the Friday) and you've got a four day weekend !

[sidicks]

dcb said:

Germany does something similar.

Lots of holidays on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that only one day booked holiday
(the Monday or the Friday) and you've got a four day weekend !

In the UK, with a bank holiday Monday, can't you just book a Tuesday off and have a 4-day weekend too?

[durbster]

sc0tt said:

The bloke is a moron. I'm a contractor so would just lose 4 days money.

Another way of looking at it is you have four more days to enjoy your life.

[anonymous-user]

swiveleyedgit said:

Now altered to prevent arrest by the Stazi.

Stasi. Staatssicherheit

[hman]

durbster said:

sc0tt said:

The bloke is a moron. I'm a contractor so would just lose 4 days money.

Another way of looking at it is you have four more days to enjoy your life.

Or yet another way of looking at it is that we will lose 4 more days (practically a week) of trading with the rest of the world.

"Dear chief secretary, I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left,"

Remember?

[jonby]

Puddenchucker said:

What's the betting that if this ever went ahead, many employers would reduce their employee's annual holiday allowance by 4 days?

Fairly slim, firstly because many people are simply on the statutory minimum (in the UK that's 28 days, often but not always being 20 days plus the 8 bank holidays) and if this new law came in to play, one assumes the statutory minimum would go up to 32 days. If not, it would defeat the purpose

Secondly, because if not on the statutory minimum, many such people will have a contract of employment indicating annual holiday entitlement of 'x days plus bank holidays' and even if they don't, once you have a contract with more than the statutory minimum, you would reasonably expect your holiday entitlement to go up if more bank holidays are created

[jonby]

dcb said:

Sheepshanks said:

France has several holidays which fall mid-week so they tend to make long weekends out of them.

Germany does something similar.

Lots of holidays on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that only one day booked holiday
(the Monday or the Friday) and you've got a four day weekend !

As an employer, I'm just having more nightmares with this thought

A bank holiday thursday surely makes the friday inbetween almost a dead day for trade, particularly in an office environment ?

Incidentally, I seem to recall reading that in some countries, some of the bank holidays fall on weekends, meaning that they don't interfere with monday-friday jobs/firms

[Shakermaker]

sidicks said:

dcb said:

Germany does something similar.

Lots of holidays on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that only one day booked holiday
(the Monday or the Friday) and you've got a four day weekend !

In the UK, with a bank holiday Monday, can't you just book a Tuesday off and have a 4-day weekend too?

Of course you can, but with the German/French system, there is more inclination to make it a long weekend to avoid the stop-start week of working three, taking one off, then working one more, then having two more off. Whereas, we get three days off as a block when we have a bank holiday Monday, which you can use to your advantage for going away or just taking a proper break.


It is definitely a policy suggestion more geared towards the workers than the management of course.

But giving it some thought, I would wonder this as well:

There are a huge number of workers in this country who see no immediate/direct benefit to a bank holiday.

Anyone who works in:
Emergency services
Healthcare
Retail
Transport
Hospitality
Pubs/Bars
Tourism
Sports

and many others that I can't think of right now, will already be most likely working on a 7-days a week and possibly 24-hour shift or roster pattern anyway. A Bank Holiday for them, is another day at work, if you're in Retail or work in a pub, you know you are going to be working a lot harder.

The time you get the benefit won't be on the Bank Holiday itself, but whenever you can afford to take your day off in lieu. Or of course, you are on a zero hour contract or similar, and you might be entitled to double pay for the day. OK, its possibly good for the pub you work in to have many more customers, and for the store to take in more revenue.

but where is the benefit of this to emergency workers, or people who work at airports, or train stations - the company will still have to pay you/day off in lieu or pay you extra pay, but won't see any direct increase in the cost of you coming in to work but equally, can't have you NOT coming in to work as the business still has to operate.

I would support a plan to spread the bank holidays further apart in the year, rather than the current system where 7/8 of them fall within a 6 month period and the other 1/8 is in August. Let's keep Christmas/Boxing and New Year. Then wait 3-4 months and have Good Friday/Easter Monday. the other 3 should be spread so we get... Late June, Late August, Late October? Possibly link the October one up with Half Term as well anyway to save a few quid.