Calculating annual leave with compressed hours!?!

[Planeflames]

Right, I’m not sure why my brain isn’t working as I’m getting different figures than my work - so wanted some help! They’ve been shit during mat leave so I’m not going to just trust their numbers this time!

I work a 37.5 hour work week compressed into 4 days (I no longer work Mondays). I get 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays = 247.5 hours leave inc bank holidays for a calendar year.

for ease I have then put this back into days which comes to 33days.

In 2024 there are 3 bank holidays not on a Monday, which then need to come off this total - leaving 30 days total.

Is that right? Can someone advise as maths has never been my strong point and I’m getting stressed about it all

It's generally easier just to keep with the hours. So take those bank holidays off in hours rather than converting to days

Our holiday system can’t process hours so it’s all converted back. I just want to know if the calculation is correct. As they’ve come up with 5 days less and I’m confused :)

Yes easier to stick to hours you can then convert back. But remember each day cost you 9.375 hours if leave which might be confusing you.

You'll get 4/5 of full time entitlement but your days will be worth more. You'll only need to use a day's holiday for a bank holiday if it falls on your normal working day.

So I need to do the 247.5/9.375 instead of /7.5?

After the Bank Holidays I think you have 219.375 hours which is 23.4 days not 29.25.
Hope that makes sense.

It's 20% less I would say. If you had 25 days, it's now 20 as that's the required amount for the same amount of time off.

I would say every bank holiday that falls on a Monday you get back, so add those but I don't think they're in your initial 25 calculation either x

No it would be 80% of 33.

@Wafflefudge now I’m confused

if each day of leave is now 9.375 hours with my compressed week surely the calculation would be 247.5 divided by 9.375 = 26.4 days total?

You still work full-time, so you're still entitled to 247.5 hours in total, the same as any other full-time worker.

Subtract off the bank holidays that fall on your working days, at 9.375 hours for each bank holiday.

You're left with the number of hours that you can book off as annual leave (again at 9.375 hours per day).

Yes, that's right... you now get a total of 26.4 days leave entitlement (for both annual leave and public holidays), and that's exactly equivalent to the 33 days that someone on a standard work pattern gets.

I agree with that - you have 26.4 days allowance including the bank hols that fall on your working days.

@skilpadde Probably a stupid question. But I also have days to carry over from 2023. Do these carry over straight, or do I need to make them into hours as well?

Isnt 33 days is what someone working a 7.5 hour day would get?
You will get less days off that than - but the same number of hours.

33 days is 6.6 weeks leave on a 5 day week.

The 26.4, rounded up to 27, is 6.75 weeks on a 4 day week, so looks right to me.

You can take the number of days you carried forward, and multiply them by 7.5 hours (as you earned them) and divide by 9.375 hours (as you'll take them)... that gives you how many (new, longer) days you can take off as carry over leave.

Or just multiply the number of days by 0.8... that will do the same thing. :)

@skilpadde thank you so much!

I don’t think it’s ever going to be 100% accurate as my days aren’t an even split (e.g I work 10 hours Tuesday but only 8 on a weds, so if I take a one day leave off Tuesday I benefit from the calculation etc.) but this is really helpful to know! Feel more able to push back now :)

I agree with @Wafflefudge

What is your employer saying you have in holidays? 26.4 days? That is correct but at 9.37 hours per day.

You need to save 3 bank holidays from your entitlement at your normal hours so 26.4 days less 3 = 23.4 days holiday x 9.37 = 219.25 hours to take.

So, Standard contracts working 37.5 hours / 7.5 hours per day:
gets 25 + 8 bank hols = 33 days/ 247.5 hours

You work the same amount of hours so are entitled to the same holidays in hours 247.5 but if you want it in days you would do 247.5/ 9.37 = 26.41 of your days

Or if you took 33 days / 5 days x 4 days = 26.4 days at 9.37 hours per day = 247.5 hours.

If you work diff hours each day and need it accurate it needs to be recorded in hours.

Are there other people doing the same working days / hours as you?

@Doingitsolo2023 our holiday system can’t do hours, so it’s never going to be exact (as I work different hours every day and it fluctuates based on what I want to do that week)

no one else doing the same compressed pattern as I am hence the confusion :(

they’re coming back with 21.8 days which is why I wanted to check :)

if you work different hours on different days it is never going to work calculating it in days, So if you want to take a Tuesday off it cost you 10 hours, or a Thursday costs you 8 hours. The only other way to do it is to look at annualised hours but that depends on your employer allowing you to be flexible on when you work those hours.

I would ask your employer if paper records could be kept instead of the computerised system.

What is a full time working week in hours for your company? Have you said this? This is the reason I also kept a paper leave chart when I was part time as it was never accurate on the system and I felt as long as I could rationalise what I'd done I good faith if challenged thar was the best I could do as no one ever helped to give a proper figure.

I used to add bank Holidays on as hours and take them off when I had a bank holiday (pro rata of course)

If you are full time but compressed I don't see there is any difference in what you should receive.

You might have to book it off as if working normally and keep your own real time record?

@helpfulperson a paper system would be difficult to manage, tbh I’d benefit as no one would really be there to check a paper system so maybe I’ll suggest it 😅