MORE than 2.5 million workers - many of them women - are likely to lose money because of the Easter bank holidays, the TUC said.

An analysis of official statistics by the organisation shows that 2.7 million workers were not paid for the Easter Monday holiday last year.

And of those who lost out, 1.7 million (64 per cent) were women - 15 per cent of the total female workforce. The TUC says the reason is because it is legal for employers to treat bank holidays as a normal working day, or else force workers to take a day's holiday, either unpaid or as part of their minimum right to four weeks' paid holiday.

Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: "It's 133 years since Gladstone introduced the Easter Monday bank holiday, yet a significant minority of UK workers are still not getting a paid holiday.

"Most people probably assume that they have a right to a day off with full pay, but they do not.

"It's about time the Government gave workers proper holiday rights and gave us enough bank holidays to bring us up to the European average."

The UK also gets three fewer bank holidays than the EU average.

They say those most likely to lose out are women workers in low paid and less skilled jobs - who are the most unable to afford to lose a day's pay.

The job types with the highest proportion of women losing out are elementary occupations such as cleaners and catering assistants (24%), sales and customer service jobs (23%) and personal service jobs (23%).

Workers in the hotel and restaurant sector are the most likely to be sent home without pay (32%), but the biggest group losing out are in health and social work where more than 400,000 are hit.

Across the country, workers in the South West, Wales and East Anglia are the most likely to lose out.

The TUC is highlighting people who lose out on holiday entitlements as part of the "It's about time" campaign calling for more working time rights and better work life balance in the UK.