 Pay at Christmas is not a right |
Three million UK workers will be denied holiday pay on Christmas day, according to the TUC. The UK is the only European Union country where workers are not entitled to pay if they take a bank holiday off.
Nearly 800,000 people will work on Christmas day without any guarantee of extra pay, many working in restaurants, pub, nursing and social care.
The TUC wants the European Commission to use its review of EU working hours to force UK firms to pay up.
Season's grafters
It is pushing the UK government to introduce three new bank holidays to bring the UK in line with the European average, and to bar firms from including bank holidays in employees' annual leave entitlement.
"It's about time the season's grafters got paid more for working over the Christmas holidays. And it's about time Scrooge bosses had to give holiday pay to people who take time off work to enjoy the festivities," Brendan Barber TUC general secretary said.
According to TUC figures, nearly 200,000 employees in London and the South East have no guarantee that they will be paid for working Christmas day.
Some 92,000 people in the North West, 91,000 in Scotland and 80,000 in the South West may face also Christmas day without pay.
One-Minute World News 
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