Local authorities must decide whether to grant staff the June 15 holiday declared for Scotland's World Cup fixture, balancing cost, service cover and equality concerns
Scotland’s one‑day World Cup bank holiday is forcing councils into awkward choices
The Scottish Government has designated June 15 a bank holiday to mark Scotland’s participation in the World Cup. While that gives central government staff the day off automatically, local authorities have been left to decide whether to extend the same benefit to council employees — and the decision is proving far from straightforward.
Why one day can ripple across services
A single extra holiday looks harmless on paper, but for councils it creates a cascade of logistical and financial challenges. Services that must run regardless — social care, emergency repairs, waste collection and other round‑the‑clock operations — still need cover.
That often means paying overtime, hiring agency staff or applying premium rates, which can push up short‑term payroll bills and complicate rota planning. Alternatively, letting staff use the day from their annual leave saves cash now but redistributes pressure to other dates.
Councils also have to juggle legal duties and tight budgets. The choices are stark: meet contractual holiday entitlements, keep essential services operating, and protect vulnerable residents — all while trying not to dip further into limited reserves.
How much will it cost?
Costs split into fixed and variable elements. Fixed costs include contractual holiday pay and extra payroll administration. Variable costs are where the numbers fluctuate: overtime, agency cover, and lost income from chargeable services that close or run reduced hours.
Estimates differ widely because every authority has a unique mix of services, staffing patterns and pay arrangements. Glasgow City Council — one of the largest employers in Scotland — estimates the extra bank holiday would cost about £520,000, to be drawn from existing balances. The Western Isles said it would decline the holiday, putting the impact at roughly £120,000. Midlothian’s figure sits near £130,000, and East Lothian officers have flagged comparable sums and recommended refusing the day. Smaller councils, with narrower staffing pools, often feel the proportional hit more acutely.
How councils reach those figures
Finance teams combine direct payroll calculations with indirect assessments: enhanced pay for staff working the holiday, statutory holiday accruals, agency and overtime bills, lost fee income, rescheduling costs and extra administrative time for rostering and payroll. Small shifts in assumptions — higher overtime rates, greater staff uptake of the day, or unexpected service demand — can swing final estimates by tens of thousands of pounds.
Some councils say they could cover the cost from one‑off reserves or general balances. Others warn that if the bank holiday becomes a recurring expectation, they would have to find savings elsewhere or cut services. Differences in methodology — for example, whether to pay premium rates to essential workers or how to account for lost income — explain much of the variation between council estimates.
Operational pressures and fairness
The real strain lands on services that cannot pause: night‑time social care, emergency repairs and front‑line waste rounds. Paying to cover those shifts eats into contingency funds and reduces flexibility elsewhere.
There’s also an equity problem. Office‑based staff who can take the holiday off benefit directly, while shift workers, care staff and lower‑paid employees may see little or no practical advantage. That uneven distribution of gain can create industrial relations tensions and questions about fairness across the workforce.
The Scottish Government has designated June 15 a bank holiday to mark Scotland’s participation in the World Cup. While that gives central government staff the day off automatically, local authorities have been left to decide whether to extend the same benefit to council employees — and the decision is proving far from straightforward.0
The Scottish Government has designated June 15 a bank holiday to mark Scotland’s participation in the World Cup. While that gives central government staff the day off automatically, local authorities have been left to decide whether to extend the same benefit to council employees — and the decision is proving far from straightforward.1
