If Christmas day and boxing day fall on my days off...

[Justmuddlingalong]

should I have to keep part of my holiday entitlement for those days? I work 2 days a week, the business is closed Christmas and Boxing day, the 1st and 2nd of January. All 4 of those fall on days I don't work. I have been told I must keep 4 days leave to cover these days, is that right?

Yes. If you normally work on those days (or any other public holiday when your work closes) you would be given extra holiday allowance to cover them. As you would not normally work on those days, they wont give you extra holiday allowance.

In my old job, I wouldn't have been able to use holidays for days I did not work as my paid hours would have been more than I was contracted for if I worked my normal days plus took paid holidays for days I dod not normally work. That may also be the case for you.

Sorry, I meant to say that if you don't normally work those days, and will still be working your normal hours, I don't think they can make you use up your leave to cover those days.

The bank holiday thing is a red herring.

You are entitled to the national minimum days leave in the year which is 5.6 weeks. So in your case it will be 11.2 days. So if you take out any bank holidays that you have been paid for, and your annual leave that you have already had or booked, plus any else you need to take - then as long as you are getting your 11.2 days [usually rounded up] then that's cool. Any less and that's not cool.

If they are your rostered days off and you'd be working your normal week elsewhere (or taking leave) they absolutely cannot make you keep leave for them. What's more, you're still entitled to a proportion of leave for them in lieu e.g. someone working 3 days a week is likely to work 60% of full time. They would be entitled to 60% of all bank holidays. However if they get to Christmas and they've used up all their leave then the bank holidays would need to be covered by annual leave in this case.

If you wouldn't be working them anyway then you don't need to take them off, so you don't need to use holiday for them.

Thanks for the replies. I queried this when my manager mentioned it, but she said that the office told her that I had to keep 4 days for the 2 days we are closed over both Christmas and New Year. I'll get her to talk to the big boss. Thanks again.

Simple explanation would be something like this .
If your normal day off is Monday's you would never work on any on the 4 BH Mondays. So if you were on a 50% contract you would be entitled to 2 days leave in respect of the BH entitlement.
Alternatively if you always worked Monday's and was on a 50% contract you would get 2 of them but would have to keep 2 days annual leave to cover the others.

So basically if you don't work those days you don't have to keep leave to cover them.

No, you don't need to keep days from holiday entitlement on days you wouldn't normally work.

Your holiday is calculated pro ratanof 2 days a week.