UK lags behind others on bank holidays

The UK is close behind some of the most generous countries in the world in terms of statutory holiday allowance, with employees being entitled to 28 days per year. But after public holidays are taken into account we drop down the league table.
The 2009 Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines report, by consultancy Mercer, which was based on statutory entitlements for an employee working five days a week with 10 years' service, shows that Finland, Brazil and France tops the global list by offering staff 30 days statutory holiday a year.
UK workers are, however, entitled to the lowest number of public holidays at just eight a year, along with Australia and The Netherlands, while Japan and India offer employees twice as many.
Once the statutory minimum and public holidays are taken into account, workers in Lithuania are entitled to the greatest amount of paid leave in Europe with 41 days' holiday per year, with France, Finland and Russia coming second (40), followed by Austria and Malta (38), Greece (37), and then the UK along with Sweden and Spain (36).
Mercer: www.mercer.com/summary.htm?idContent=1360620