Bank holidays for part-timers

[janeyk]

I am returning to work Monday-Thursday and someone told me that any bank holiday which occurs on a Friday should be given to me as a day off in lieu. Is this correct? Ta.

[MrsTwinks]

you possibly already will do, depending on holiday allowances. If they give you the equivalent of 5 weeks (ie the bank holidays ontop of statutory allowance) then they don't have to give you extra for bank holidays.

HTH

[sheeplikessleep]

Shouldn't you get four fifths of the bank holidays?

I genuinely don't have a clue. Sorry!

[plus3]

I would check with your HR department. (did type a much longer answer, but it seemed too complicated sorry!!) it is to do with being available to work, if that helps.

[ceebeegeebies]

No, you have been told incorrectly. Your bank holidays need to be calculated pro-rata (so 80% of full-time hours), added onto your holiday entitlement for the year - whenever a bank holiday is on one of your normal working days, you would deduct a day, whenever a bank holiday is on one of your non-working days, you don't do anything at all.

Not all companies are aware of this and quite a lot just think it is luck if you happen to work Mondays, you get the benefit of more bank holidays but legally it should be done as above.

If it is, working Mondays is not generally a good idea as you have to use some of your normal holiday entitlement to cover the number of bank holidays that you are off - best working pattern would be Tues-Fri.

[ceebeegeebies]

Sorry, meant to add that some companies would let you adjust your hours for the week instead of deducting the time off your entitlement but clearly, this is not an option for people with formal childcare in place.

[plus3]

I work part time for the NHS - because I work shifts therefore able o work whenever, I am entitled to all the bank holidays regardless of whether I work them or not (pro rata)
However, I'm not sure what the situation is if you only work Mon-Thu & Good Friday occurs.
Hence check with yor HR dept

[ImpatientOne]

Should be pro-rata. I work 2 days/16 hours per week (NHS) and all the bank holidays are added to my annual leave which is worked out in hours. So if I want to be off on a bank hol it comes out of my AL if it was a working day but if it was my day off anyway then I just do nothing.

No one should end up with more AL but it sometimes feels like that - I always have Mondays as a day off which means I can use that AL on a day I actually want to book off.

It wasn't always this way but they realised some people were taking advantage by taking 8 days of BHs when they worked only half time so that's why it's all done in hours/pro-rata now.

hth

[Flyingoutofcontrol]

I do a bit of HR and will try to explain as best as I can while referring to the directgov website!

All workers have a right to at least 5.6 weeks? paid annual leave (so if you work full-time 5 days a week, this would be 28 days), but you could receive more than that. Your employer can control some things about your holiday, including when you should take it and whether they include bank holidays in your entitlement. 4 days a week would give you 22.4 days holiday - most employers would round up the .4 to either a half day or a full day if you're lucky.

I would look at what bank holidays fall on days you do work (if they're included in your entitlement) and deduct them from your total allowance to see what your balance of days is.

Alternatively (and I'd recommend this!) talk to your HR department and they should work it out for you!

[Chavmum]

It should be pro rata as has been said. I work part-time (Mon-Wed) to if a bank holiday is on monday I'm only entitled to part-time hours (ie, half a day). Therefore I can either book half a day leave to cover the other half a day or have to work an extra half a day that week. However, on the plus side as you said if there's a bank holiday on a Friday I'm entitled to part-time hours (even though I don't work Friday's). Its supposed to be so that you're not disadvantages whichever days you work - however, as most Bank Holidays are Mondays it doesn't work out great if one of your working days is a Monday. Therefore, in answer to your question you will be entitled to a % of your hours on a bank holiday Friday, but also only a % of your hours on a bank holiday Monday. Clear as mud?!

[janeyk]

I'm pretty confused. We don't have a HR dept as it is a relatively small start-up. I think I'll just leave it as I will be returning from mat leave and have already accrued some leave so if I go in asking about 2 more extra days, it wouldn't go down well...Thanks for your help though. Might come back and doublecheck once I'm not so tired!

[ImpatientOne]

good luck janeyk !

It honestly isn't that complicated - if you work Mon - Thurs and therefore 4/5 (four fifths or 0.8) of a full time post you should get 4/5 of the bank hols which is 6.4 bank holidays. It's slightly more complicated if you work different hours but not really, you just need to know what % of hours you work compared to a FT post and then multiply it by 8 which is the usual BH allowance. :)

I do realise not every company does this though :)