The Legal Minimum

General orientation, not legal advice. Requirements differ substantially by jurisdiction and change; check the current rules for yours.

Small employers either over-worry about this or ignore it entirely. The actual list is short.

Records you are generally required to keep

Holiday taken and remaining, to demonstrate the statutory minimum was provided.

Sickness absence dates, where a statutory sick pay scheme requires it.

Hours worked, in jurisdictions with a working-time recording duty — which across the EU means an objective, reliable and accessible system.

Pay records, which payroll usually covers.

Retention periods that differ by record type and jurisdiction, commonly measured in years.

Rights you have to respect

Statutory minimum holiday, including for part-time and variable-hours staff, pro-rated properly.

Statutory sick pay where the scheme applies.

Rest breaks and rest periods, which attendance records are what demonstrate.

Family-related leave — parental, carer's, bereavement, depending on jurisdiction.

The right not to be discriminated against, which is where absence triggers become dangerous.

The four that catch small businesses out

Pro-rating for part-time staff, particularly public holidays.

Variable-hours entitlement, which accrues with hours worked and cannot be stated as days at the start of the year.

Disability-related absence counted toward a trigger without adjustment.

Pregnancy-related absence counted at all, which in many jurisdictions it must not be.

Each is an ordinary arithmetic or policy error rather than a moral failing, and each produces claims.

What people can ask for

A copy of the data you hold about them, including attendance and absence records.

Which means the records need to be retrievable per person, and free of anything you would rather not show them — a useful discipline in itself.

Correction of anything wrong.

Deletion of anything held past its purpose.

What to write down

The leave year dates.

Entitlement and how it is calculated.

Carry-over rules.

The sickness reporting process.

Any company sick pay scheme, and whether it is discretionary.

One page in a handbook, given to everyone. Most disputes in small businesses come from these being unstated rather than from them being unfair.

When to get advice

Long-term sickness where the employment may not continue.

Any absence that may be disability-related, before applying a trigger.

A dismissal on attendance grounds.

These three are worth an hour of professional time, which is a fraction of the cost of getting them wrong.

Write the leave year down

The smallest item on the list and a surprisingly frequent source of dispute.

January to December and April to March are both common.

People assume whichever their last employer used.

Which produces an argument in month three about whether days carried over.

One line in the policy, and it never comes up again.

A concrete product reference

When translating this principle into a buying test, see how the workflow works provides a concrete workflow reference. Verify the current behaviour in a trial, retain the exported evidence and judge it against the purpose and limits described above.

Independent reference

For an external point of reference, see UK government guidance. Use the official source to verify current statutory rules before turning a general principle into a workplace policy.