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Work

Change in work contract

11 replies

AnneTwacky · 15/10/2016 10:46

Up until this week I've loved my job. My colleagues are great and I enjoy doing a good job.
Until yesterday when I found out that I was losing almost 2 weeks of holiday. This was presented as a fait accompli and I should just accept.
The reasoning behind their decision is because of the way they calculate bank holidays for part time staff. Full time staff have their annual leave paid and also their bank holidays paid on top of that so 33 days in total of paid leave. In the past part time staff have had these 33 days pro rata which when rounded up was 20 days, with the expectation that when a bank holiday arose during our work days, we would use one of those days to make it fair on the full time staff.
They have now decided to take the 5 days pro rata bank holidays off us and just give us a bank holiday when one arises during our work days. However because I don't work on Mondays I will miss most of them. Can they my employers give 33 paid days of leave to full time staff and only 16/ 17 to part timers and can they just change a contract like that?
All advice much appreciated as I think I'm too annoyed to be rational at the moment.

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Brokenbiscuit · 15/10/2016 10:53

I'm afraid I'm no expert, but it has always been my understanding that employers can't discriminate against part time staff or offer them worse terms and conditions than full time employees. The new approach to calculating leave definitely sounds unfair. Do you have a union that you could consult?

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AnneTwacky · 15/10/2016 10:56

Unfortunately, I don't. I was going to ring Acas on Monday to see if they could help.

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LIZS · 15/10/2016 10:59

So you've previously had the benefit of extra hours each you haven't had to redeem. Surely that gave you an advantage over ft and pt including Mondays employees so this actually equalises the situation. I don't think you'll win by arguing pt employees are disadvantaged as many will not be.

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Unthoughtknown · 15/10/2016 11:03

If Monday is your non working day I can see that this would disadvantage you. Are you able to raise a formal grievance? If not can you change your non working day?

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AnneTwacky · 15/10/2016 11:05

I'm confused, I've never had any extra hours over part time staff who work on a Monday and if you mean the 0.2 of a day the used to round our leave up by, I would be fine if they took this away. But they're taking over a week's worth of leave away, leaving all part timers at a disadvantage, except possibly those who do work on Mondays.

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AnneTwacky · 15/10/2016 11:10

Unthoughtknown
I don't think I could change my days as it would leave us short staffed in the second half of the week. Raising a greivance does seem like the way forward. I'm natrually quiet but this does seem like a good option.

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Cindy34 · 15/10/2016 11:14

ACAS are often open Saturday mornings, I would call them now to ask if by offering full time staff 33 days, do they have to offer part time staff the same but pro rata... or can they offer only statutory entitlement (5.6 weeks).

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Brokenbiscuit · 15/10/2016 11:14

I think some people might feel that your old arrangement was unfair because you probably had more discretionary leave than your colleagues who were full time or part time but working on Mondays, but I think that's a red herring.

What matters is that you should get the same amount of leave pro rata as any other member of staff. It sounds like this won't happen under the new system, and I think this would mean that your employer is potentially treating PT staff less favourably, which they're not allowed to do.

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LIZS · 15/10/2016 11:16

Presumably those who worked Mondays currently have to use some of their allocated leave for the bh. You might get the same allocation as someone who works same pt hours , say .6 , but not have to repay the bh as you are off anyway. So you have free choice when you redeem those hours in addition which they don't, assuming the workplace isn't open on bh. If your working days are fixed in your contract so can the bh allocation be.

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AnneTwacky · 15/10/2016 11:26

Thanks Cindy am on hold to them now.

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AnneTwacky · 15/10/2016 11:39

Just got off the phone. They are not allowed to offer a benefit to full time employers without offering it pro rata to part time staff, and they should offer a period of consultation before any changes such as this, so I need to write them a letter highlighting my concerns.