Working During Annual Leave in the UK: Employer Obligations and Risks

Annual leave is meant to be a genuine break from work. But in a small business, real life can get in the way - a key client needs an urgent answer, a deadline moves, or the only person who understands a system happens to be off.

That’s why the topic of working during annual leave in the UK comes up so often for employers. You might not be trying to stop someone taking time off - you might just be trying to keep the business running.

The tricky part is that asking (or allowing) someone to work while they’re on holiday can create legal and practical risks, especially if it becomes the norm. It can also undermine the point of annual leave, which is to protect health and safety and prevent burnout.

Below, we break down what you need to know as a UK employer or small business owner - including whether employees can work during annual leave, what you should do about pay, rest, record-keeping, and how to set clear rules that keep your business protected from day one.

Can Employees Work During Annual Leave In The UK?

There isn’t a single rule that automatically makes any work during booked annual leave “illegal” in every situation. However, employers still need to be careful: statutory holiday is there to provide genuine rest, and if leave is regularly interrupted (or the employee is expected to stay available), this can create compliance risk and disputes.

As an employer, you should treat working during annual leave as a scenario that needs clear boundaries, because it can raise issues around:

• Whether the employee actually received their statutory rest (annual leave is there for a reason).
• Working time compliance (daily/weekly rest and maximum weekly working hours).
• Pay and record-keeping (especially if hours are “informal” or untracked).
• Health and safety risks (stress, fatigue, burnout).
• Fairness and culture (if some staff feel pressured to stay “always on”).

It’s also worth being aware of how “work” can show up in modern workplaces. It isn’t always someone clocking in for a full shift. It might be:

• monitoring emails and responding “just in case”
• taking calls from customers
• prepping documents for a meeting the day they return
• logging into systems to “fix something quickly”

If this is happening, the safest approach is to treat it as working time and manage it properly - rather than letting it sit in a grey area.

What Does The Law Say About Annual Leave And Rest?

Annual leave in the UK is mainly governed by the Working Time Regulations 1998. Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per leave year (often framed as 28 days for someone working 5 days a week, but it’s pro-rated for part-time staff).

The bigger picture is that holiday entitlement is part of a wider framework designed to ensure people get adequate rest. This is why working during annual leave becomes a compliance issue when it’s frequent, expected, or results in someone not taking their statutory leave properly.

Why “Just Checking Emails” Can Still Be A Problem

If someone is regularly working during annual leave, you may be undermining the purpose of their statutory holiday - and potentially exposing your business to disputes later if the employee argues they didn’t truly take their leave.

There’s also the working time angle. Holiday often sits next to weekends, rest days, or bank holidays, which means “quick bits of work” can interfere with minimum rest requirements and weekly working limits.

In practice, the legal risk usually doesn’t come from one isolated incident. It comes from a pattern, such as:

• staff feeling they have to be available during annual leave
• managers repeatedly messaging staff while they’re off
• holiday being treated as “working from another location”

If you haven’t recently reviewed your working time approach, it’s worth checking your policies against the Working Time Regulations requirements, particularly around rest and weekly hours.

Bank Holidays, TOIL, And Confusion Around “Leave” Days

A lot of annual leave issues arise because businesses don’t have a consistent approach to bank holidays and time off in lieu (TOIL). For example:

• If you say holiday is “28 days inclusive of bank holidays”, staff need to understand what that actually means in practice.
• If someone is asked to work on a day they were meant to be on leave, you should be clear whether they get TOIL, holiday reinstated, or extra pay (depending on your contract and policy).

If this comes up often in your business, it’s worth ensuring your documents clearly define whether entitlement is inclusive of bank holidays and how day in lieu works.

If Someone Works During Annual Leave, Do You Have To Pay Them?

This is where many small businesses accidentally create risk: the employee “volunteers” to do some work during annual leave, no one tracks it, and the business assumes it’s covered by their normal salary.

Even if the employee is salaried, you should be careful. The key issue is not just “pay”, but how you classify the time and whether their holiday entitlement has effectively been reduced (particularly if the interruption is significant or repeated).

Common (And Risky) Scenarios

• Employee takes annual leave but works anyway: They may later claim they weren’t able to take holiday properly, or that they were pressured to work.
• Manager asks for “a quick task”: This may create an expectation that leave is interruptible, which can cause morale and retention issues (and potentially legal disputes).
• Employee works a full day during annual leave: At that point, you may effectively be treating that day as working time. If you decide to undo the impact on leave, handle it transparently and consistently under your contract/policy (for example, by crediting the day back).

A Practical Approach For Employers

If an employee genuinely performs work during annual leave, consider these options (depending on what your contracts and policies allow):

• Credit the holiday back (give the annual leave day back, if appropriate under your arrangements).
• Offer TOIL (if your policy supports it, and it’s tracked clearly).
• Pay additional hours (more common for hourly paid staff, and subject to the contract and payroll approach).

The “right” answer depends on the working arrangement, the seniority of the employee, what their contract says, and what actually happened. It’s also important to remember that statutory holiday should be genuinely taken: if someone’s leave is repeatedly interrupted, you may need to address the root cause (coverage and expectations) and take advice on the correct way to ensure they receive their full entitlement.

This is one reason it’s so important to set expectations in an Employment Contract and your internal policies, rather than trying to manage it by ad-hoc messages.

Can You Contact Employees While They’re On Annual Leave?

Sometimes, you genuinely need to contact someone - for example, because there’s an emergency, a safety issue, or a handover gap.

But from a best-practice perspective, “contact” should not quietly become “work”. If your team is constantly answering calls and messages on annual leave, you’re heading into “always on” territory, and that can be damaging for both productivity and compliance.

Set A Clear Rule: What Counts As An Emergency?

A helpful way to manage this is to define “emergency contact” in a policy. For example, you might limit contact during annual leave to situations involving:

• an immediate risk to customer data, safety, or security
• an operational crisis that can’t reasonably wait
• a legal compliance deadline where no one else can act

Everything else should wait, be reassigned, or be handled via a documented escalation process.

Be Careful With Overreach And Monitoring

If your business uses work devices, work emails, or monitoring tools, keep in mind that “checking in” on staff during leave (or expecting availability) can create employee relations issues fast.

Separately, if you do monitor systems, make sure it’s done lawfully and proportionately. The rules differ depending on context, but as a general principle you should be transparent and have a clear business reason - especially if you’re checking communications while someone is away. If you’re reviewing your approach, monitor employees’ computers is an area where it’s worth getting the basics right.

How Do You Manage Annual Leave Properly In A Small Business?

Most issues around working during annual leave in the UK aren’t caused by “bad” employers. They’re caused by small teams, thin coverage, and unclear processes.

The goal is to build a leave system that doesn’t collapse when someone takes a week off - and doesn’t quietly pressure people to work while they’re meant to be resting.

Step 1: Make Annual Leave Rules Clear (And Consistent)

Your staff should know:

• how annual leave is requested and approved
• how much notice they need to give
• how you handle peak periods (for example, Christmas shutdowns)
• whether you can require leave at certain times
• what happens if leave overlaps with bank holidays or non-working days

If you’re unsure about your rights to require staff to take leave at specific times (or refuse leave during key trading periods), it’s worth getting clarity on dictating holidays.

Step 2: Plan Coverage And Handover Like It’s A Business Process

A simple handover process can massively reduce the “need” to contact someone on annual leave. For example:

• create a handover checklist for each role
• assign a point-of-contact for each client/account during leave periods
• document key passwords/access (securely) so you’re not relying on one person
• schedule deadlines with leave in mind (where possible)

This is one of those unglamorous processes that protects your business from day one - and it helps your team actually switch off.

Step 3: Decide What You’ll Do If Someone Works During Leave

It’s much easier to handle this when you’ve decided in advance. Your policy might cover:

• Whether staff are allowed to work during annual leave at all
• Who can approve it (for example, manager-only approval)
• How hours are tracked
• Whether the day is credited back, TOIL is offered, or additional pay applies
• How to report “accidental work” (like a short call)

Even if your policy is strict (“don’t work during annual leave”), having a process for exceptions is what makes it workable in a real-world small business.

Step 4: Watch Out For Working Time Spillover

Annual leave issues often connect to broader “always working” culture problems - long hours, skipped breaks, and blurred boundaries.

Make sure your managers understand that rest isn’t optional. Breaks and rest time are part of compliance, and they’re also part of sustainable performance. If you need a refresher on minimum rest rules during the working week, employee breaks is a good starting point.

What Policies And Documents Should You Have In Place?

If you want to reduce legal risk around working during annual leave in the UK, the best move is to put the rules in writing and apply them consistently.

For most small businesses, that means having:

• A clear annual leave policy (request process, notice periods, approvals, restrictions, carry-over rules, and what happens if leave is interrupted).
• A working time and overtime approach that is realistic for your operations.
• An escalation process so “urgent” issues don’t automatically go to the person who is off.
• A written position on contact during leave (including what counts as an emergency).

Typically, these rules sit across the employment contract and your wider workplace policies. In many businesses, it makes sense to consolidate them in a handbook so expectations are clear and consistent across the team (and managers aren’t making it up as they go).

It’s also important not to rely on generic templates for this. What works for an office-based team may not work for retail, hospitality, construction, or shift-based operations - and a policy that doesn’t match how you actually operate can create more problems than it solves.

Key Takeaways

• Working during annual leave is a common small business issue, but if it becomes normal it can create legal risk around rest, working time, and employee wellbeing.
• Annual leave exists to provide genuine rest - repeated contact or “quick tasks” during leave can undermine that purpose and damage culture.
• If someone works during annual leave, deal with it transparently and consistently, and in line with your contract and policies (for example by crediting the leave back, offering TOIL if your policy allows it, or paying additional hours where appropriate).
• Set clear boundaries on contact during annual leave, including what counts as an emergency and who can approve exceptions.
• Strong systems (handover checklists, coverage planning, escalation processes) reduce the operational pressure that leads to staff working while on holiday.
• Make sure your approach is documented in your employment paperwork and policies, and apply it consistently to avoid disputes.

If you’d like help reviewing your annual leave rules, updating your workplace policies, or putting the right employment documents in place, you can reach us at 08081347754 or team@sprintlaw.co.uk for a free, no-obligations chat.