AIBU to want more holiday?

[Popskipiekin]

My employer has just announced that all staff can have 2 extra days paid leave over Christmas. The days are fixed, we can’t take them another time. I work part time and one of the leave days falls on my normal day off. AIBU to ask for an extra portion of a day off (I would be asking for half a day beforehand) so I get the same as everyone else (1.6 days total as I work 80% hours) or is that being really petty?

I would have thought they’re closing to match business needs and you taking extra leave in a day when they’re spect everyone back in would be counterproductive.

I think yabu. Every year Christmas is s on a different day so some people work and others don't. You're being a bit greedy.

@lazyarse123

I think yabu. Every year Christmas is s on a different day so some people work and others don't. You're being a bit greedy.

But the people who work it get the same number of holidays as those who don’t, they just have to take it on a different day.

Many employers require closure and make employees take it out of existing allowances, giving no extra days. In your shoes, I wouldn't look gift horses in the mouth. My employer closes for the days and everyone must take it out of leave. Every year. We'd be thrilled to get some extra leave.

I hear you and I know this isn’t the most scintillating of topics so thanks for responding! The days are a thank you for those of us who have been working flat out since March as they can’t give the usual bonus. We don’t usually close at all - but what we do isn’t shift work, so people never draw the short straw of working over Christmas, say.

It just means that others in my team now effectively have 2 spare leave days to allocate next year (by now being able to carry forward 2 days they were going to use to take these days off) but I only have 1. For my annual leave - like many part timers - I get a pro rata allocation of the FT amount, out of which I have to take bank holidays etc. So I’d like to have that extra 0.6 day to play with.

Fair enough if IABU. Thanks for commenting, it’s helpful.

We are doing the same this year, and the part time people will be getting seriously short shrift from me if they ask for this! Very cheeky!

If it was normal annual leave/Bank Holidays then PT are entitled to pro rata

As its extra leave as a gesture of goodwill then I'm not sure that rule applies, it is up to the discretion of the company bosses I suppose

@BooFuckingHoo2

We are doing the same this year, and the part time people will be getting seriously short shrift from me if they ask for this! Very cheeky!

Hahah ok fair enough, thanks!

So I definitely don’t have a leg to stand on arguing that if you work a 5 day week for 5 day pay, you’re getting 40% off for free vs my 4 day week when I’m getting only 25% off? No?

I guess this is why I asked on AIBU first...

My work close between Christmas and New Year - I work Thursdays and Fridays.
Because two of those days are bank holidays they are taken out of my annual leave - so I don't really benefit from the closure this year but other years I do.
It is annoying though! I already lost another day this year to the changing of VE Day to a Friday.

I think you are entitled to ask and the legislation requires that p/t staff not not be treated differently to full time employees.

If full time people get two extra days leave and you work .8 you should get 1.6 days extra.

YANBU but for a small company they may not ‘get it’.

Part timers shouldn't get a worse deal than full timers so I don't see why you shouldn't ask

What I am also trying to say is if you are PT and don't work Mondays you would usually get to pick and choose when you take your bank holiday entitlement which isn't that fair on FT staff either.
I think you will have to suck it up for this year. Maybe you would be a winner another year? For example if both days off were your working days it wouldn't be fair on FT staff either - you would be getting a whole week off and a FT member of staff only 40%.

My work is doing this and I do get some pro rata extra holiday. I think it’s fair enough, surely?

Fair doesn’t always mean equal, though that’s hard to explain in some contexts. I am a home worker, full time. The office to which I’m attached usually closes at lunchtime on Christmas Eve and sends everyone home (it means facilities staff can get the office ‘put to bed’ for our closedown, and still leave on time themselves). Office based staff don’t have to take leave for this. But as a home worker, I have to take leave to get the same time off, because there’s no imperative to close me down early. It’s fine because I don’t then have a commute to get home, and I feel it’s fair to my colleagues.

"So I definitely don’t have a leg to stand on arguing that if you work a 5 day week for 5 day pay, you’re getting 40% off for free vs my 4 day week when I’m getting only 25% off? No?"

It's a gift. You don't argue over a gift. Ever. You aren't entitled to anything extra so VE grateful.

If the boss said they'd buy all the staff bacon butties every day next week, would you argue that he owes you an extra one because you were off one day?

I don't think they are allowed to treat part time staff differently to full time staff.

Might be worth a quick phone call to HR?

I keep coming back to this as it affects me too but I think the difference is that they have not given everyone else 2 additional days holiday; they are closing for 2 days. You are entitled to bank holidays in your statutory entitlement but discretionary closures? I am not so sure - like a PP said - when a firm closes for a half day on Christmas Eve, most staff wouldn't be required to take a half day of leave and if they want the day off they may well have to book the whole day (which is what we have to do which to stop everyone booking it off).

Presumably you’re not going to get paid for this extra day off as it’s a non-working day for you so I think on that basis it’s unfair and should be pro-rated

Sorry OP, I think yabu as this is a gift, not statutory leave, contracted leave or a national holiday. If each member of staff had been gifted two days leave to take when they wished then you would be right to have 1.6 (tho may in fact have benefited by being given two) but this feels to me that they’ve essentially chosen for the business to be on holiday those two days. It’s a bit of bad luck...but good luck to have an unexpected day off! Enjoy

I don't think it's petty. Definitely worth asking to get your full allowance.
But, do you reduce your entitlement to bank holidays and public holidays over the year. Eg if you work 80% you take 4/5th of the bank holiday allowance and make up the rest from your annual leave? As it would be unreasonable to claim unfair treatment over this year's Xmas holidays if you don't.

God I'd be so annoyed if I tried to do something generous for my staff and they complained. In fact, I used to be very generous with holiday, then people started complaining and taking the piss. Now i give the bare minimum I'm required by law to give, deny requests when it doesn't work for me and dont give any extra time off for shit like car MOTs, like I used to.

What I'm saying is, if you complain about something that your boss isn't require to give, they'll stop giving it.

i think you should raise it.

if all full time staff get 2 extra days off, so should the part time staff (pro rata)

anything else is discrimination.

(and yes, part time staff get the bank holidays pro-rata'd generally) - so if you normally get 20 days holiday and 8 days bank hol, 28 days, and you work 4 days a week you get 4/5 of that 28 days.

You can’t think of this as extra holiday, because you have no choice in when to take it. The business is closing for those two days. Anyone who would usually be at work on either of those days, or both of them, can’t go in, so doesn’t. It’s not extra leave, just a closure. It’s the same as if the building was closed for a water leak or something - you wouldn’t be asking for extra time off if that was the case - your working hours are not material.

Mixed bag then.... this is why I wasn’t sure. I really don’t want to be that person... I keep thinking that say I worked only 3 days a week I’d be really miffed that my colleagues got two whole paid days off but I didn’t. As everyone knows, part timers do often have to do full time hours anyway...

And yes for those asking, I have an annual leave allocation which is 80% x (25 days + 8 bank holidays) out of which I need to take any bank holidays that fall on my usual working days.

I think I will raise quietly with my manager to see what he says. We are never usually officially closed over Christmas (but everyone in my team just takes holiday those days anyway - there’s work to be done but no expectation that we do it those days, January is fine). This is a one off special recognition to thank us for our hard work. Those who work full time are effectively being thanked “more” than part timers.

It's a goodwill gesture. Taking the piss a bit to ask for more.