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?

My colleague only works 2 days a week, Mon and Thur.

If there’s a Monday bank holiday she has the choice usually to work on a Tuesday instead that week. However we’re small and flexible and it doesn’t matter that much what day she does.

Hopefully your work would be happy to allow you to work tues-fri on the bank holiday Monday weeks. It’s more likely that meeting would be held on the Tuesday instead so maybe that would be better for them anyway

I love it.

i get the bank holiday off
and then I get the day to use for annual leave any other time, needn’t be a Monday. Perfecto

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there's now another Monday bank holiday next year for the jubilee so that will make the impact of working Mondays even worse. Like others, I have Mondays off for this reason. Hope you get something sorted with your employer OP.

Coronation I mean. I wish there was an edit button...

i work Mondays.

so I get the bank holiday off. And it is in addition to my basic holiday entitlement ie X holiday plus bank holidays

why is that not good?

I guess it depends how many hours you work each day and whether part time. I work normal hours in a day but only 4 days (30 hours a week) so for every bank holiday, I get a 6 hour credit. If I worked Mondays, I'd have to use 1.5 hours of my annual leave allowance to top up and cover that day off. Because I don't work Mondays, I'll now get another 6 hour credit to take when I please (as the bank hol falls on my NWD).

Because depending on how the contract is worded people may get it taken out of their current holiday entitlement rather than it being an extra day's holiday

Depends what your contact says . DH is x amount of days including bank holiday.

if your contract says annual leave entitlement is x plus x closure days, the total is your holiday entitlement.

if you work part time, this total is proportioned down - and then the closure (bank holidays) which occur on your working days are taken from the over all entitlement, leaving you the number of days you have to choose when to take.

part timers who do not work Mondays end up with more time to select when they take compared to full timers, and those that work Mondays have less choice.

where i work we have an informal arrangement with staff that when a closure day falls on a Monday, if the member of staff can work the other day they have off that week normally, we don't take it from their leave entitlement. at our place we do this for the may and august bank holidays only, because we have more closure days at xmas and easter and it becomes too complex. most Monday part time workers are happy with this arrangement - although some
can not take it up for one reason or another

I hope you can persuade your employer to come up with a compromise for this

So you check your contract before accepting the job 😐

It is an assumption but if OP has a partner with "regular hours" then they could cover the BHs.

Fair assumption given very relevant and you’d reasonably presume the Op would have mentioned at one point during her multiple posts

I don't understand how 'say you'll work the Tuesday instead' works for the OP in her specific situation of being worried about covering school holidays. The day after a Monday bank holiday is almost always a school holiday, so if she works that she's just going to create another day she needs childcare for.

It's shit but not illegal.

Who looks after your children on BH? Some BH fall in the school holidays so you'd be taking them anyway.

Have a proper look at your calendar for next year and see what falls where. Good Friday and Easter Monday should be in the school holidays. As will the August BH (and often the late May BH falls in half term)

The Xmas BH will also in the school holidays.

Do you get the ones you don't work back? IE the Tuesday after Xmas.

Your company will be unlikely to allow you to swap your day off, unless you can identify a "business" reason for this.

I work part-time time, Mon and Wed each week. The office closes on BHols therefore, although I get 13 days hols a large proportion (I think 7) are used on Bank Holidays. Its crappy as it basically dictates when I take most of my Holidays, and only leaves me with 6 days where I can actually choose the days I want them, but does seem pretty standard.

I would ask to work Tuesday to Friday so that you gain flexibility; you should be given extra hours of annual leave entitlement to make up for not having bank holidays off.

@kweeble at least read the OPs posts she can’t swap working days.

yes but op may have a choice not to work monday, which she doesnt now. She will get another prorata day in lieu of the bank holiday and have choice when to take it.

The extra bank holiday works like this for me

I work 1 day a week

So I get 1/5 extra due to new bank holiday.

If I worked Monday and had to take it off now it would use up 1 day

I'd have "lost" 0.8.

Though actually I have just lost some flexibility as to when to use holidays. (And in practice I just work Tuesday instead that week). Overall I have gained a bit extra due to that extra bank holiday by 0.2 of a day.

Nb: not all part time workers have kids. I did it when completing a masters.

The issue with being part time and extra bank holidays (as lovely as they are!) is I’m not entitled to a full days hours so I might get given 4 hours then have to use my existing annual leave to make up the time or make up the hours elsewhere.

Yeah Monday is def the worst day to work in terms of bank hol/pt. I do 22.5 hrs per week so every bank holiday I get 4.5 hours added in but have to take off 7.5 if it's a working day.

3 out of the 4 of bank holiday Mondays, plus GF and the three at Christmas fall in school holidays though, which should suit you.... May Day is the only term time one!

As long as you are getting pro rata of 28 days they're working it out correctly.

@Bunnyflop7 You shouldn't be worse off, but as others have said, working a Monday as a part timer can impact your holiday entitlement more than others as you are automatically receiving potentially more bank holidays than your pro rata entitlement. There are two ways to communicate this to colleagues; either a deduction made from your annual leave entitlement which you don't 'see' as such, so remaining holidays are yours to book (no need to book bank hols), or you are given the full entitlement to then book the bank holidays from. Both methods works out the same but just depends how business prefer.

I've worked using both methods, the first whereby you would pro rata your annual holiday entitlement and making any additions/ deductions from this based on your working pattern vs where the bank holidays fall each year (as Christmas, boxing and New year's day rotate and can fall on varying days of the year). In some instances those who work mid week for example don't recieve many bank hols so have additional days given to them to ensure they have the right amount.

We would then give them the final amount of days to take (didn't need to book bank holidays). This could be confusing as two colleagues who work two days could recieve different entitlements based on what days they work. I ALWAYS had the query every year why 'hers was different to mine'.

In my current organisation we work out the entitlement of holidays and bank holiday entitlement as full and give the colleagues their days to take on the basis they then need to book their bank holidays from this and this is where the differences are seen at the point of booking, but in difference to the above example two colleagues working 2 days per week would recieve the same entitlement BUT the person working Mondays would need to book more bank holidays from their entitlement because this is their working day and the benefit of receiving a full days pay on bank holiday Mondays. Same entitlement but unfortunately less choice because the bank holidays are on set days, notably Mondays.

I'd just ask your HR Team to break down down calculation so you can see this and I'm sure it would make sense. Happy to help or review this for you from another HR perspective if you are still unsure 👍

What previous posters have said.
HR should look the standard entitlement and the number of bank holidays there are in the year and add the 2 together, then pro rata the total and then you should book the bank holidays as leave for any bank holiday that falls on your working day.

Ive worked part time in 3 companies and all had v v similar ways of doing tbis.

when you book the days including the bank holidays you book the number of hours off to be equivalent to what a typical working days hours were so I’m guessing for you 6.25 hours a day??

What you describe is normal, I work full time and have 28 days (29 this year) which includes bank holidays.