To ask whether there are any employment law people on here?

[MayTheLordOpen]

Posting here for traffic.

Basically I work in an office 30 hours a week but only during term time (so 39 weeks of the year).

The other 13 weeks I do not receive pay for. However, my salary has been divided over 12 months so I don't end up with no pay over Summer etc.

In this case, how does annual leave work? Do I accrue holidays over 39 weeks of the year? And how do Bank Holidays work if they occur in the School Holidays? We do not have an HR person to speak to and am I not sure the person who is calculating it is sure on what she is doing!

I think you need to start by looking at your contract, then you could look at the GOV.UK website where there is a useful guide and leave calculator for non standard hours and working patterns. In a similar term time role annual leave and bank holidays were calculated on a pro rata basis and included in annual pay. Like you this is paid over 12 months and holidays always taken out of term time.

I'm an employment solicitor. You will accrue the leave over the weeks you work (the 39). Your salary is just paid monthly for convenience. You will get a pro rated entitlement to bank holidays if your contract say that you get bank holidays in addition to your other annual leave. This will be 39/52ths of the full year's entitlement.

Are you allowed to take holidays during term time?

If you are NOT allowed holidays during term time, I'd assume that your 39 weeks is actually 39 weeks salary including the accrual of the 39 weeks holiday pay, which is then divided by 12 - so some of the 13 weeks whilst schools are closed are "holidays" and some are days where your workplace is closed - this is how teacher pay works - we don't get 13 weeks paid holiday; our holiday pay is just part of our salary evened out over 12 months.

I only started with this set up in January. Previously I was working 3 days per week. My contract just says 28 days including bank holidays pro rata for part time but my work have just said they are going to work it out that I work 3 days a week so base holidays on that? I don't see how that works when I work 3/4 of the year and not 3/5?

My hourly rate hasn't changed so I am definitely not receiving holiday pay on top but just want to be clear so I can dispute it the 3/5 thing.

I did check on the Gov website but that just says 5.6 weeks minimum for all staff so a little confusing!

There was a recent ruling that term time staff are also entitled to 5.6 weeks annual leave. It was The Harpur Trust vs Brazel if you want to read the details