AIBU? - Annual leave

[MrsR31]

I'd like some opinions please, especially from those of you who might have HR experience.

Background is, I work part time, used to be mon to wed. Employer asked if I would take on new role last year and work mon/tue & fri. Agreed and rejigged childcare. Today I got new holiday sheet for the next year, I get pro rats share of 25 days & public hols. However, this time I will only get 7 public holidays despite working days falling on all 12. Meaning that whilst office is closed, I have to supplement p/h with 5 days annual leave (one & a half weeks). Leaving me with ten days for the year.

AIBU to expect full p/h allocation? Feel that it's unfair, especially as I changed my days to suit business needs and wouldn't have agreed if I had been made aware of the implications. I never have spare annual leave due to needing days for filling childcare gaps. Solutions offered were to work back extra 5 days -not feasible, work PT for a reason, or change days so that not working mon & Friday. But that's a major pain in the arse too as I need to rejig childcare again and I was watching my niece on my day off, so also going to mess up my sisters childcare.

Are you in Scotland? Because I have only ever heard of 8 (or sometimes as a poster pointed out 9 if you end up with two Good Fridays in one holiday year). What are these extra ones which you say aren't always given?

I think it has to be that way (pro rata bank hols otherwise it wouldn't be fair between someone that worked mon-wed and someone else doing wed-fri because there are more bank hols on a Monday.

I get 12 public holidays. It's common in Scotland.

2 x Christmas
2 x New Year
2 x Easter
2 x May holidays
Friday/Monday - Trades fair weekend
Friday/Monday - September weekend

Scotland get more than England and Wales - but not 12 I don't think.

OP, so your contract is 0.6? Could you say how many hours you work per week?

It does sound unfair. You should be getting a pro rata share of holiday days, which would be 15 on a 0.5 contract plus any bank holidays that fell on a working day. You won't get anything in lieu of bank holidays that are given to full time workers.

Employers cannot discriminate and treat part time workers less favourably than f/t ones. If you are on a 0.6 contract but are only given 10 out of 25 days, you should call ACAS and get some advice from them.

This isn't how my work does it. If you work on a day that falls on a bh you get that day off. In my prev job I worked mon-weds so got all the Monday bank holidays. In my new job they asked me to work tues - thurs which I agreed but after I realised I lost the Monday bank holidays they have changed my days so I now work Mondays and get them. I don't get or expect to get any bank holidays that fall on days I don't usually work. Fortunately Mondays cover the majority of them.

To me it makes sense that you get the day off if it's a usual working day so to me YANBU but reading the comments it seems I'm lucky to get the holidays I do!

I'm in NI and get 12.

@people = everyone 'uses' a bit of annual leave when a bank holiday comes round - in that they are entitled to x number of days plus the bank holidays.

The best advice I would give anyone is to work Tue-Thur. That way, you get three fifths of the bank holiday entitlement, never work Mondays anyway, and can use your equivalents to the bank holiday whenever you wish.

Threads on holidays run and run on 'accountingweb', which is my other main homepage!

Bank hols in Scotland are -

Jan 1st and 2nd,
Easter Friday & Monday,
1st Monday in may
Last Friday & Monday in may,
One Friday in July (this date varies by area)
Friday & Monday in Sept
Dec 25th & 26th

I am guessing the OP works in civil service - don't they dish out extra days for the queens birthday or something!

flutterby I'm sorry but that is incorrect. OP is entitled to a pro rata amount of public holidays based on her working hours ...Nothing more so in this case 3/5 of 12 days (although no idea where 12 is coming from).

It is unfortunate for OP that because the public holidays fall on her working days this year she is left in a deficit situation I.e. she uses more than her allowance of public holidays and therefore she needs to cover the deficit with annual leave.

However she is absolutely no worse off as other pps have said ...The end result is the same ....E.g. someone who worked a different 3 day week , say tue, wed, Thur wouldn't need to use a/l to cover a bank hol Monday because it's their NWD. However they will have worked a 3 day week and the OP only 2 days.

As long as OP is getting 3/5 of the amount of a full time person that is correct and legal.

OP - I have no idea if you are in the UK why you say there are 12 public holidays as this is not the case. I suspect you may be in the public sector and some of the days are extras or privilege days as sometimes called? In which case some of these (not the bank holidays) don't have to be taken on a specific date so may be worth looking into?

But I can assure you that your employer is correct. I'm a HR manager..If that counts for anything.

Are you civil service or similar? They get extra days - e.g. Maundy Thursday, Queen's Birthday. Privilege days I understand they're called.

There are only 8 bank holidays in England this year and no other public holidays.

just seen the note on Scotland - I might move!

They've worked it right - it's a real pain I know

I used to work mon tue fri and so was only entitled to 3/5 of the bank holidays so had to take the rest as leave

Now u work wed-fri but I'm still entitled to 3/5 and so I'm given these on top of my annual leave. So now instead of losing almost two weeks leave, I actually gain 5 days on top which is at least a week as there's only usually good Friday that falls.

I'd switch your Monday or offer to work another day in the week when it's s bank holiday to substitute. Or you could book your weeks off around bank holidays

I know from previously working pt that I got 85% of 31 days - 23 normal holiday and 8 bank holidays. I then had to take any days that fell in my working days off so some years were better than others.

I was allowed to swap my off day every now and again so I could use less holiday up, if need be.

I work in HR in the UK and there are 8 recognised public/bank holidays (10 for Scotland).

New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, First May, Second May, August, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

What are these other four you mention??

It really isn't your employers fault for you having to reserve more days for bank holidays...it's the same entitlement, you haven't lost anything at all. just some are enforced on certain days. Your viewpoint is rather sad to read....a typical 'my employer owes me' type.

There are 9 bank holidays in Scotland in 2017:

2 & 3 Jan
14 April
1 May
29 May
7 August
30 November
25 December
26 December

According to www.gov.uk/bank-holidays#scotland

Thing is I can't see what's changed for you. You worked Mondays before, some years you get stung on the Fridays now, but there's only 1 a year that's regular.

It's a normal way companies work it unfortunately.

The law changed on this a few years ago. It used to be if you normally worked on a Monday, you got annual leave, but if you normally worked only Wednesday and Thursday, you got nothing. So this was actually to make it fairer to part time employees.

Can you not swap your days around so you work different days when the bank hols fall and you don't want to use al? I have the same situation, pt including Monday. I think it is fair but I can see how it is annoying.

you got Bank Holiday not annual leave

I'm in Scotland and we don't get Easter Monday, the late May holiday, or the "locals" - those are normal teaching days for us, and we get extra days in summer.

The number of Bank Holidays in Scotland, varies depends on the region you live in.

They can't give you the full entitlement. That would be really unfair on full timers.

If I went part time, I'd do Tuesday-Thursday or Wednesday-Friday for this reason. I actually work a long day and used to do Monday but changed to Wednesday as it sucked on a BH week.

I did once have to explain, in detail, to someone who had returned from maternity on two days a week that, no, she wasn't still entitled to 29+8!

My guess is that the OP is in Need Ireland. In my last job I got all of these as public holidays:

New Years Day
St Patrick's Day
Good Friday
Easter Monday
Easter Tuesday
Early May
Late May
Good Friday
12th July
13th July
August Bank holiday
Christmas Day
Boxing Day

(Although most employers would only do Easter Monday and Tuesday, not Good Friday)