Public holiday entitlement
Your public holiday entitlement is additional to your annual leave entitlement.
You are entitled to a standard working day off in lieu if
- you are required to be present at work at any time (from 00.01 to 23.59) on a public holiday,
- you are rostered to be on-call on a public holiday
- your scheduled rest days (sometimes known as zero hours’ days) fall on a public holiday.
When a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday
If the public holiday (including Christmas Day, Boxing Day, or New Year’s Day), falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the public holiday will be designated instead as falling on the first working weekday thereafter. In such circumstances, no day in lieu then arises for the work undertaken on the public holiday.
LTFT trainees
As a LTFT trainee you are entitled to public holidays at a rate of no less than pro rata to the number of public holidays for a full-time doctor, rounded up to the nearest half day.
Your public holiday entitlement will be added to your annual leave entitlement, and any public holidays will be taken from the combined allowance for annual leave and public holidays.
For almost 200 years, we have been supporting doctors from tuition to physician and beyond. Learn more about being a BMA member today.
As of 18 September, all references to junior doctors in BMA communications have been changed to ‘resident doctors’.
Making up nearly 25% of all doctors in the UK, this cohort will now have a title that better reflects their huge range of skills and responsibilities.
Find out more about why junior doctors are now known as 'resident doctors'.