Agency worker and bank holidays

[Desperatetime]

My dp work shuts every bank holiday and the permanent workers get this paid in addition to 5 weeks holiday however my dp is employed by an agency so has to keep booking them as holiday to get paid. Is this the norm as I thought agency workers got same rights after 12 weeks as permanent staff anybody got any knowledge on this.

When I worked as a locum worker I didn't get paid for any bank holidays unless I had accrued toil and then I could take it as a paid day. However, I preferred to take toil on working days and just take the hit on bank holidays.

When you say employed by an agency, do you mean he is doing a set job it's just temporary- or does he locum or work as a contractor?

I think this sort of thing is normal. You lose the perks of employment by being agency. You normally also get paid more as a result. Why can't he go permenant?

ACAS are the best shout, especially after 12 weeks however even permanent workers can have different benefits from other permanent workers depending on what’s in their contract. Think of companies who offer extra holiday days based on length of service for example or employees who might be on an older contract.

I’ve had it before where some in my team were entitled to paid bank holidays because their contract said so, the company changed contracts for new starters and existing staff were going to leave if they were forced to change and it seemed to be accepted.

Usually agency workers holiday pay is incorporated into their hourly rate. Our agency staff technically get the same amount of holiday (including bank holidays) but they don't think of it and often make comments about not getting holiday. But they do - if they looked at the breakdown of the contract - it just doesn't 'feel' like it because of course they get used to the pay they receive. The pay is considerably more than what we get, and that's part of the reason!

By law, nobody is automatically entitled to paid time off for Bank Holidays - it depends what's written in your contract.

Some businesses will offer 28 days including all Bank Holidays.
Some (generous!) ones will offer 28 days plus all Bank Holidays.
Some will just say 28 days of paid time off, and you can either take the BH's unpaid or use your AL and have them as paid days. This is common in industries like retail, hospitality and care where they operate seven days a week.

In short - your DP isn't, by law, entitled to paid time off just because it's a BH, no matter long he's been an agency worker for this company.

Permanent contract doesn't appear to be in.the pipeline with this company they have kept 1 person over a year without giving a permanent contract. I just think it's unfair to expect him.to take bank holidays out of his annual leave when permanent staff don't have to and I wasn't sure if this became one of his rights after 12 weeks like other things do.

Op he does have rights in regard to holiday, but what isn't clear in your post is whether or not he gets less holiday than his permanent peers

Permanent staff don't have to book the bank holidays off, but the bank holidays come out of their holiday entitlement. They are in essence, made to use 8 days of their annual leave a year for bank hols

Your DH has to book the leave because as an agency worker, payroll wouldn't know of the requirement to pay him. The holiday comes out of his holiday entitlement.

Do you know if his holiday entitlement (whether days of actual holiday, or holiday pay included in his hourly rate) is different to what permanent workers would get?

It's unfair but it's perfectly normal and legal for agency workers to be in this position, OP. I was an agency worker myself for years, so I still feel almost spoiled and very grateful having paid holidays in my current role.😍