YORKSHIRE Building Society colleagues in Skipton have received an early Christmas gift this year as the Society has announced it is giving all its colleagues an extra day off for Christmas Eve.

As Christmas Eve falls on a Friday this year, it means that colleagues will receive a full five-day break over the festive season as they will return to work on Wednesday December 29.

It also means customers will need to plan ahead if they need to contact the Society around this time.

This is the second year that the Society has given colleagues Christmas Eve off and recognises the immense challenges of the last two years where its staff have gone above and beyond in their roles. As key workers they have kept the vast majority of branches open throughout the pandemic and call centres have remained open to provide essential financial services to customers. 1,400 staff also switched from office to home-working.

The mutual has also offered colleagues unlimited dependents and carers leave at full pay and anyone who is shielding, unwell or needs to self-isolate and cannot work from home qualifies for paid sick leave at their full salary. Customers who are registered for online account management will be unaffected by this announcement.