If I switch to working compressed hours, 10 days in 9, will I end up with less days in annual leave?

[SocksTalk]

I'm guessing it will but how does it work?

I normally work 37.5 hours and get 26 days annual leave.

Help!

Yes it will be pro rata'd so you'll get 90 % of your current allowance: it won't matter tho as you will be off the 10th day?

No, your annual leave allowance is calculated in hours and needs to be booked in hours. You'll get the same allowance but it will feel like less.

Well kind of- your holiday would be calculated and taken hourly so fewer days because you’re taking more holiday for each day you’re off if you see what I mean.

I think I will now be working 2*37.5=75 hours in 9 days so each day is 75/9=8.333 hours

My 26 days leave plus 8 BH =34 days.
In hours to convert is 34*7.5/8.333=30.6 days.

So I lose 3.5 days leave overall but obviously having a day off every fortnight.

Am I making sense?

No. You don't lose any leave you just use it up quicker on your longer days.

We do this, I get every second Monday off. Working day is 7.7hrs rather than 7. All holiday hours are combined with bank holiday hours. So say 8 bank holidays we would add 8 x 7 to 35 x 7 = total holiday allowance in hours. Every day off is 7.7. You still get the same holiday allowance as you are still doing a 35 hr week. Hope that makes sense.

You can still take the same number of weeks provided you take most of them in your 4 day weeks not your 5 day weeks.

HR person here.

If you work the same number of hours you do now, your holiday allowance will stay the same.

But you will have to convert your holiday entitlement into hours so that you can discharge the correct amount for every day you want off. So if ur working day on compressed hours is 9 hours then you have to use 9 hours of your leave.

Depending on which day you have as your non working day, your bank holiday calculation/ entitlement may also be affected.

I'm confused about the bank holidays.

If I take Monday's as my compressed day off every fortnight, do I have to take 8.333 hours off my leave entitlement for those bank holidays only or do I have to do it for all this bank holidays?

You’d only need to take leave for a bank holidays if it fell on a working day. If it’s a non working day then you don’t need to do anything.

They'll work out which bank holidays fall on working days and which don't and apportion the allowance from there.

Yes, thanks @TippingTree
So as I'd have Mondays off, there's only 4 non Monday BH in 2025 so I think I'd end up with 30.6 - 4 = 26.6 days annual leave.

That's .6 more than I have now, which doesn't feel right?

Not at my work you wouldn't because annual leave is allocated in terms of hours worked not days.

Well, can you figure out where my maths is incorrect?

If you are still working ft hours your leave needs to be in hours and you deduct as relevant.

@LIZS
That's what I have done

I will now be working 2*37.5=75 hours in 9 days so each day is 75/9=8.333 hours.

My 26 days leave plus 8 BH =34 days.
In hours to convert is 34*7.5/8.333=30.6 days

But I will only need to book 4 non Monday bank holidays, so I will have 26.6 days leave which is more than the 26 days I get today.
It's a miracle!

I think you're misunderstanding.

Each day of leave you take now, whether because of a bank holiday or not, is going to be 8.33 hours.

People working a 10 day week will be taking 7.5 hours of their annual leave on a bank holiday Monday. But you will be taking 8.33 hours for the same day.

Your leave won't be going up or down. It's just that if you take 2 weeks annual leave, you'll be taking 9 days leave and one non-working day (75 hours), whereas your colleagues would take 10 days leave (75 hours).

No. I do this. I still work 35 hours; just over fewer days. You need to calculate your holidays in hours though. So a day off is 8.75 hours, not 7 hours. A week off would still be 35 hours off.

I don’t work Mondays as it’s beneficial to me most years I gain hours it does depend whether Xmas & New Year fall on a Monday or not. If Friday is your non work day you may be worse off but my leave is in hours

But check how many hours you get for a bank holiday as I get given 7.5hrs per bank holiday but need to book off 8hrs if it falls on a working day as per my contracted hours

It can work differently at different places but for example I have a Wednesday off and as that is Christmas Day and New Years Day this year I got the hours back for those as those are bank holidays (18 hours back). They took hours off me for the other bank holidays but as we only get 6 in total (so if I’ve understood correctly for the four of those that weren’t on Wednesdays, 8 hours taken off) I ended up with more hours of annual leave than someone who works shorter hours 5 days a week. But I prefer it the other way like next year when I’ll get Christmas Eve off by default and then Christmas Day and Boxing Day so more days off without using leave, even though some hours of my leave will be taken for the extra bank holiday hours off I’ll get.

So it can make sense that your leave entitlement looks like more but it is all fair if you look at the hours worked vs hours off.

As Lougle say, you deduct all bank holidays - working day or not.

All 8 are included in your original adding up of 26 days leave plus 8 BH to get your starting allowance of 34 days, so to balace the equation they also need to be included in the subtraction of leave used.

No you don’t lose a/l but you need to take 8.22 hours (or however long your compressed day is) to get an a/l day.

You will get your full public holiday entitlement. Add those 2 figures together. That’s your total leave allocation.

Every time you take a public holiday or an a/l day you deduct 8.22 hrs (or whatever your day is) from that total.

You don’t take a public holiday day if you are not working that day. Some years you come out better than others - and vice versa.

Well, that’s what happens in our organisation.

I work a 9 day fortnight and my holiday is exactly the same.

Agree with @Lougle . Each fortnight needs to add back to 75 hours whether worked or as leave.