8.1 Periods of time
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Working days
8.1.15 Weekends and bank holidays will not be treated differently from other days unless
you make express provision to that effect. So, if your period is expressed in days, and is very
short, the policy might be only to count working days.
8.1.16 Here are examples of definitions of “working day”, producing different policy results.
EXAMPLE (1)
In this section, “working day” means any day other than—
(a) Saturday or Sunday,
(b) Christmas Day or Good Friday, or
(c) a day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings
Act 1971 in England and Wales.
EXAMPLE (2)
In this section, “working day”, in relation to part of the United Kingdom, means a day
other than—
(a) Saturday or Sunday, or
(b) a day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings
Act 1971 in that or any other part of the United Kingdom.
8.1.17 Note that under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, Christmas Day and
Good Friday are “bank holidays” in Scotland but not elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
Months
8.1.18 Months are a particular problem because of their varying lengths.
8.1.19 A period expressed in months beginning with a day will expire “on the eve of” (ie
immediately before) the date corresponding to that with which the period begins.
6
For
example, a period of one month beginning with 6 April will expire “on the eve of” 6 May -
that is, the end of 5 May.
7
8.1.20 So, where a period is expressed in months, the number of days in it will vary
according to which day of which month the period begins on. A period of “1 month”
beginning with 6 April (and therefore ending at the end of 5 May) will be shorter than a
period of “1 month” beginning with 6 May (because April is shorter than May).
8.1.21 If variation of length in different cases is not desirable, it may be worth considering
whether it would be better to express the period in weeks or days. But equality of length
comes at the price of difficulty of calculation: it’s easy to see that the end of the period of 3
months beginning with 6 April ends with 5 July, but harder to determine when the period of
90 days beginning with 6 April ends.
6.See the cases mentioned in footnote 2. This rule is not the same as the “corresponding date
rule” which applies only where (as is not recommended) a period is expressed as beginning after
a particular event: see Dodds v Walker [1981] 2 All ER 609.
7.What happens if there is no corresponding date? That might happen if the period begins with
31st of a month and the final month has 30 days; or if the period begins on 29th, 30th or 31st of
a month and the final month is February. Common sense suggests that the period will end with
the final day of the final month, which appears to be confirmed in University of Cambridge v Mur-
ray [1993] ICR 460 at 462 (Employment Appeal Tribunal).