Many legal rights of an employee depend on how much "continuous employment" he has completed (see Continuous employment/meaning of ).

Periods of absence from work for normal holidays or otherwise by "arrangement or custom" (as well as periods of absence because of temporary cessation of work and periods of absence of up to 26 weeks when the employee is incapable of work in consequence of sickness or injury - see Continuous employment/time off work not breaking continuity generally) are treated as weeks of employment for the purposes of computing a period of continuous employment (Employment Rights Act 1996 s.212(3)(c)).