Next year's holiday entitlement is this right?

[MYA2016]

Working full time I was given 25 days holiday plus bank holidays on top.
I return in the new year from maternity leave and will be working Tuesday, weds, Thursday and Friday full days.
My colleague who returns at the same time also working 4 full days will be doing Monday - Thursday .

We have both been told we will get 20 days holiday.

I'm confused as to what this means, am I not entitled to a proportion of bank holidays on top because I don't work Mondays and most of them are on a Monday?

[stinkbonb]

Yes you are - the best way to calculate it would be 25 + 8 days public holidays for full time = 33 days. You & your colleague will be doing 4/5 of full time so will get 26.5 days each which includes public holidays, so any of those that fall on your normal working days will need to come out of that entitlement.

[LIZS]

There is no definitive method but you should get a bh allowance relative to your working pattern. So either both get .8 of the ft allowance or you get an allocation based on how many bh fall in your working week. So your colleague would get the Mondays and you Good Friday plus each any others which may fall on your working days in that leave year but move around such as Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

[herecomesmytrain]

Yes, you are both entitled to pro-rated bank holiday allowance. So 8 days bank holiday p/a equates to 6.4 (6.5 rounded up) days if working 4 days per week. Any bank holidays that fall on your normal days of work have to be ‘booked’ from your annual allowance. You shouldn't be disadvantaged by working part time.

[flowery]

You need to think in totals. Your full time colleagues get a total of 33 days paid leave a year. You and your other part time colleague are therefore entitled 4/5 of that, which is 26.4 days (rounded up to 26.5).

[MYA2016]

Okay great thanks all for the response.
Before I respond to my hr department is this something that I have rights to? Or not because it's above statutory holiday entitlement?

[lovelyupnorth]

No your not if you're give 25 + bank holidays then you're not not entilited to bank holidays if you don't work them. So your holiday is 20 days + bank holidays so you will only get those Friday's for Easter and any of the Christmas days that aren't a Monday. So you loose out. If you worked Monday's as a normal day you'd be on s winner.

[lovelyupnorth]

Our company it's 28 days including bank holidays so people who don't work Monday's get the extra days.

[stinkbonb]

that's not correct lovely - as a part-time employee you are entitled to be treated no less favourably than full time employees. That includes the same entitlement to paid time off, which is all public holidays are.

[flowery]

Part time workers rights

Its the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations OP -you must have the same holiday (and everything else) as full timers on a pro rata basis.

[2ndSopranosRule]

Just a thought, but how long have you both worked there? We get an extra five days (pro rated if appropriate) after five years, amf another five after 10. So it's actually very difficult to compare like with like. Also, our leave entitlement is calculated in hours and it could be the case that your full day is actually different to your colleague's.

[flowery]

"We get an extra five days (pro rated if appropriate) after five years, amf another five after 10. So it's actually very difficult to compare like with like."

Not really - a part time worker would just compare themselves with someone full time with the same length of service. So if someone full time with 5 years service gets (say) 30 days holiday plus bank holidays, that's a total of 38, so someone working 4 days a week with the same amount of service would get 30.4 (rounded up to 30.5). If someone working full time gets 35 days plus bank holidays, total is 43, part timer would get 34.5.

[MYA2016]

Okay so we have both been there 3 years and we all get 25 days (if full time) regardless of length of service.

I have questioned my entitlement and just had an email back saying 3.5 days extra ... Anyone know where she is getting these figures from? It's taken her hours to respond so I'm not sure she has a clue or is just plucking numbers out the sky!

Thanks again for helping me out with this, it's giving me the confidence to dispute it because I don't actually have a clue when it comes to annual leave

[LIZS]

I would think that is Christmas Day, New Year's Day , Good Friday etc. Not sure about the half day, do fte get Christmas Eve or similar?

[MYA2016]

I asked her to clarify and she won't over email said I need to go and speak to her when I'm next in!

[flowery]

So she's saying you get 23.5 days not 26.5? It's really not a hard calculation - 4/5 of what full timers get. When you actually take those days (ie is Christmas Day on one of your working days this year etc etc) is an administrative matter. What you need in writing is what your entitlement is, which is 26.5 days in total.

[MYA2016]

I worked out last night that next year 6 of the 8 bh are on a Monday so I think I'd be entitled to 80% of them because I work 80% of the time.
Which works out at 4.8 (so 5??)
Then the other 2 days I will be off..
But then that totals 27.
I'm so confused because surely I have to Base my entitlement on a % of the 6 days,not the 8? As I will be off the 2 days that don't fall on a monday?

[stinkbonb]

No, you are entitled to exactly the same amount of paid leave as full-timers, just reduced according to your hours. Therefore 4/5 of 33 days.

When the days fall, and whether you happen to have more choice over when you take your paid leave compared to someone who is also part time but happens to work on Mondays when most fixed leave is, is irrelevant - you still get the same paid time off work.

[flowery]

You are over-complicating it far too much, looking at percentages of bank holidays which are on a day you don't work.

As I said, you need to consider totals, not try and pro rata bank holidays separately. You are entitled to 26.5 days paid leave in total. Look at the calendar for next year, and see how many bank holidays will fall on your normal working days. There will be Good Friday, and presumably Christmas Day/Boxing Day and New Year's Day might also be on your working days.

Say you have three bank holidays falling on your normal working days next year, that means you need to take those out of your total 26.5 days paid leave. That would leave you with 23.5 days to take at other times. If only 2 bank holidays fall on your working days next year, you'd have 24.5 days to take at other times. As long as you get 26.5 days in total, that's right.

[Brokenbiscuit]

Exactly what flowery said.

[SlightlyperturbedOwl]

You are entitled to pro-rata bank holidays and have to take them as leave if they fall on a working day for you (which means it's much better not to have Mondays as one of your set work days when you are part time, or they take a disproportionate amount of your entitlement)

[MYA2016]

Okay so I'm entitled to 26.5 days and in 2017 only 2 bank holidays aren't on a Monday, therefore I should be left with 24.5 days to book is that right

[flowery]

Yep

[SlightlyperturbedOwl]

Yes- you said earlier you don't work Mondays, so that would be the case.

[MYA2016]

Thanks so much ladies (and I'm sorry for being a massive thicko)

[flowery]

Don't worry, the number of people who are 'massive thickos' when it comes to part time holiday entitlement is, in my experience, approximately 99.9% of the British population.*

• This might be an exaggeration. But only a very slight one!