Report comment

Paid holidays started formally in the UK with the Holidays with Pay Act 1938, repealed in 2004 (as effectively replaced by the Working Time Directive).

The initial entitlement was one week's holiday a year, paid, and this is said to have sparked the rise of the holiday camp. Before the Act, workers were only paid for days worked, and that could mean unpaid and unwanted holidays: Bank Holidays, factories closing for annual maintenance and so on, during which workers would not be paid. There were local variations, but these were contractual rather than statutory.