Need advice on leave entitlement

[candyflossqueen]

I would appreciate some advice... DH has been working for a UK hotel chain for almost a year now. He was initially contracted to work 30 hours a week, but had his hours cut to 20 a week in around March or April this year when his boss found out he wasn't as flexible in the hours he could work as she would have liked due to childcare commitments. (I am the main earner and work full time). He has recently randomly had his hours increased again to 30.

He is apparently entitled to 13 days of annual leave per year and his holiday year runs from 1st Jan. to 31st Dec. He took a week's holiday from work in February when he was contracted to work 30 hours a week and his boss deducted 4 days leave. He then took another week's holiday over the summer when he was only contracted to work 20 hours a week and his boss deducted 5 days leave which, to me, seems out of all proportion as he was only working 2 shifts a week. My question is, is there any way she could legitimately deduct this amount of leave under employment law?

[BerylStreep]

What is the leave entitlement of ft staff?

13 days leave is a bit meaningless without knowing what full time staff get. What length of shifts does he work? What is FT hours? Are they 40 hrs/week or 35?

I think the easiest way of working it out is:

Jan to March = 30 / 40 (hours pro rata) then 3/12 because it was for 3 months.
April to end July = 20 / 40 (hours) then 4/12 for 4 months.
For the rest of the year, assuming he remains at 30 hours, 30/40, multiplied by 5/12.

This will give his entitlement, in hours.

In terms of the 2 weeks he has taken, the first week should have been deducted at 30 hours, the second at 20 hours.

If you can get the info on FTE entitlement I can work it out properly.

[candyflossqueen]

Thank you for your reply, Beryl Streep.

Full-time working hours are 40 per week and annual leave for a full-time employee is 20 days.

The length of shifts DH works varies. Night shift tend to be around 10 hours and daytime shifts can be anything between about 4 and 10 hours.

[ruddynorah]

Legal minimum for a full timer is 28days a year, but this can include bank hols. Some places say they give 20days, but then staff get 8days bank hols on top. If your dh's place only gives 20 days total this is illegal.

[candyflossqueen]

Ruddy Norah, DH is often required to work a few hours on Bank Holidays but doesn't seem to get time off in lieu....

[BerylStreep]

Yes, but does DH get paid an enhanced rate for working on PHs, on top of his normal hours?

[BerylStreep]

this site might help.

[candyflossqueen]

Thank you, BerlyStreep. He does receive an enhanced rate of pay for working on PHs. Does this disqualify him from being entitled to days off in lieu?

[BerylStreep]

In our place, you either get the PH off, or if you work it, it is at double time, but you don't get a day in lieu as well.

I think the bast way of working out his leave entitlement is to convert into hours - as per my example above.

8 months at 30 hours per week (assuming he stays on 30/wk for the rest of the year) = 28 days x 8 (hours) x .75 (30 hrs/week) x .75 (8 months) = 126 hours.

4 months at 20 hours per week. = 28 x 8 (hours) x .5 (20 hours/week) x .25 (4 months) = 28 hours.

So in total your DH is entitled to 154 hours annual leave per year, including public holidays (assuming FT leave entitlement of 28 days per year, the legal minimum).

Rather than looking at how many hours annual leave have been deducted, how many annual leave hours has you DH been paid for?

During the week's leave in February, he should have been paid for 30 hours annual leave, which is then deducted from his allowance. The week in the summer should have been 20 hours.

I'm not completely clear on the public holiday working, as our leave and PHs are not combined, however the logical way of looking at it, is if he works 5 hours on, say, New Year's day, then he deducts 5 hours from his leave allowance, but gets paid 5 hours at double time, so effectively gets paid for his time and also for his leave IYSWIM?

[BerylStreep]

Crikey, forget my last post - 8 months is not .75

I'll try again:

8 months at 30 hours per week (assuming he stays on 30/wk for the rest of the year) = 28 days x 8 (hours) x .75 (30 hrs/week) x .66 (8 months) = 111 hours.

4 months at 20 hours per week. = 28 x 8 (hours) x .5 (20 hours/week) x .33 (4 months) = 37 hours.

Total = 148 hours