New employer making me take bank holidays out of my holiday

[Bunnyflop7]

As a result I only have 14 days to take for the entire year. I have kids and it’s going to be ridiculously hard to cover holidays. Never ever had this at another employer.

is this commonplace?

They don’t want me to change to have Mondays off because there is a (pointless to my job) team meeting! I’m really not happy about that!

Can you change to not working Mondays?

This is why I don't work Mondays! Although there is only one bank holiday Monday that isn't in school holidays (HMQ's funeral excepting) so perhaps tie your leave into those weeks?

How flexible are they? I am allowed to build up time in lieu so I can work some extra hours in term time to take off during the holidays.

Or ask to work your non working day on a week where there is a bank holiday so you don't lose the leave?

This is totally normal.

If the FT hours are 40 hours a week and you work 25 you get 62.5% of the FT entitlement as holiday so if FT get 24 days holiday and 8 bank holidays (which are automatically booked for them) you would get 15 days holiday and 5 bank holidays. If all 8 bank holidays fall in a working day this would mean you'd need to use 3 days holiday to cover the additional bank holidays not covered by your entitlement.

I've never worked anywhere that didn't do this- most people who are part time avoid working Mondays and/or Fridays for this reason!

But In the week where the bank holiday happens, there presumably isn’t a team meeting because everyone else has the bank holiday off. Can’t you arrange to work Tuesday to Thursday on bank holiday weeks so that you don’t need to take holiday?

First of all, your leave should be calculated in hours if you are part time, not days.

eg if you work full time at 37.5 h a week, each day at 7.5h, and you get 20 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays. 28 days = 210 hours.
You work 25h, which is 0.66 of full time hours, therefore your annual leave and bank holiday combined allowance is 0.66 x 210 = 138.6 hours.

It is frustrating I know but it is correct. I ended up changing so that my day off was a Wednesday for this very reason.

Maybe I'm missing something but for example, if you needed to book a weeks leave off that included a bank holiday day and you worked Monday to Thursday, you'd use 25 hours of your leave amount. But even if you didn't work the Monday, and worked Tuesday to Friday, you'd still use 25 hours leave. Does it not work out the same deduction from your overall leave entitlement?

It seems about right based off 24hrs a week and working a Monday. It’s worked out per hour not per day so if you condense your hours and work 3 days a week it might seem better.

Many workplaces include BHs in total leave allowances and possibly even count everyone's leave in hours because it's easier if you have a lot of people on different working patterns.

The main thing is that FT workers get at leas the statutory minimum of 20 days leave + 8 BHs (not sure about this year that had 2 extra) and that PT workers get the same amount, pro rata to the proportion of FT they work whether it's 5 short days or a lower number of standard days.

If you work Mondays but your workplace is closed on BHs then yes, you will have no choice about a lot of your leave days, especially this year as the Christmas and NY BHs are on Mondays.

As some have already suggested, you'd be better off not working Mondays. If the meeting really isn't relevant to your work, could you just read the minutes each week or ask your line manager to fill you in on anything that does affect you?

Full time employees should have a minimum of 20 days annual leave plus bank holidays. If you are full time and you’ve only got 14 days left after BHs have been deducted something has gone wrong there.

Yep, this seems totally normal to me too, this is how it works at my employee too.
However if you work 25 hours spread over 4 days, could you not change it so that you only work 1/2 a day on a Monday to cover the team meeting , and more hours the rest of the week.. Then you would only need to use 3 hours of your annual leave allowance to cover Monday BH?

The companies where I have been part time, I get my leave allowance in hours, and I also get extra pro-Rata leave to book my bank holidays. So if I worked 3 days a week, I’d get 3/5ths of the standard number of bank holidays added on to my leave. So yes, it is slightly annoying that most of them fall on Mondays.

Use the online holiday calculator, a full year's entitlement should give you 22.5 days off. when divided by the 4 days
you work, you should recive 5.6 weeks off work.

I've only ever worked in places where you get x days annual leave+ BH.

And I'd get days off in lieu of a BH of I didn't usually work on a Monday.

If you work 4 days you should get 16 days holiday. However most employers will also (legally) only pay you for your hours/full time hours x Bank Holidays = your Bank Holiday Entitlement hence giving you 14 days.

You say though that need weeks off in school holidays not random Mondays but Bank Holidays fall in school holidays. If you change day off it probably won't change your allowance as in contract it will be stated what days are Bank Holidays and taken as leave.

This is why I don't work Mondays. Could you ask to have the bank holidays unpaid or work a different day the bank holiday weeks?

So, you have to have 20 days plus BHs. In your case they're shorter days.20 + 8 = the minimum legal holiday for a full time worker.

I'm going to assume you work the same hours every day (6.25). If not this won't work.

But if you don't then in days, you should have the same as someone working 4 days a week, but each day you're paid for should be shorter.

So 28*0.8 = 22.4

For a normal year at least 4 will be on a Monday (Easter, early May, late May, August).

So that would take you down to 18.4

This year Christmas, Boxing Day and NYE also fall on your working days so that taks it down to 15.4 with the remaining one being good Friday. Do you also work Fridays? That's the only way I can get it down to 14.4

If full timers get a specific amount of leave that's higher than that, you/I could recalculate using an amount higher than statutory.

In terms of using that remaining leave most effectively, could you e.g. take a summer holidays week off on the week of the BH (3 days) and also the summer half term which usually contains the late may BH (3 days), plus Christmas to new year (2 days). That would get you 3 full weeks off plus an extra day for 8 days holiday so you'd still have 1.5 weeks left. You could also do the same thing one week either side of Easter. You might not get all of them, but definitely worth focussing on those weeks in the school holidays (assuming you have school age kids), or any BH weeks if not.

@SpikyHatePotato that is not the legal entitlement. Working Time Regulations grant under Reg 13 4 weeks leave and Reg 13A 1.6 weeks leave, no mention of BH.

Do you have contracted days?

Can you just swap your working day the weeks of the bank holidays? Or is that not possible in the job you do? its worth asking?

I never knew this was even a thing until recently when my daughter, who does a full time paid apprenticeship, was due in on her day off to make up for the bank holiday the day before! She didn't know about it until they called her to ask where she was!

It does sound frustrating but usually there's only one bank holiday (1st May one) which isn't in a school holiday?

they should give you a pro rata bank holiday entitlement as well to add to your leave and as you work 25 hours a week your leave and bank holiday entitlement should be all converted into hours. Then you book off the hours you work