AIBU or am I being deprived of holidays?

[Clarevoyant1]

I’m not sure if I am being done out of annual leave at work.

I work full time but do compressed hours, so I do 8-6 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays but I don’t work on Wednesdays. I started in this job with those hours 4 months ago. When I started my holiday allocation was the normal full time allocation. Our holiday entitlement is calculated in hours but you can only book days or half days, so the HR site shows your remaining allocation in days.

HR have suddenly cut several days from my remaining allocation telling me they made a mistake originally and failed to pro-rata my allocation. I told them it shouldn’t be pro-rata because I work full time, but they say because I only need to book 4 days off to have a week of holiday, it should be pro-rata.

AUBU or is this unfair? Surely if I work full time hours I get full time holidays? Or am I missing something?

I think they are right. It's just confusing that they use 'days' rather than 'hours'.

I do a 9 day fortnight. So I work 75 hours per fortnight, just like everyone else, but I do 8 hrs 15mins a day for 9 days and have the 10th day off. If I book a fortnight off, I book 9 days (not 10) because my days are longer.

Ask your HR dept to break it down for you but I'm sure they haven't. got it wrong

My annual allocation has gone from 28 days (not including bank holidays) to 21.5 days

It comes down to hours though, your 21.5 days equate to about 215 hours minus whatever breaks are unpaid.
An 8 hr day with 28 days holiday is the same number of hours.

As long as the hours work out then HR are right, what definitely isn't correct is you having 28 10 hour days to use and everyone else having 28 7/8 hour days.

Although I think I might have figured out where you are losing the extra hours.

The bank holidays. You are entitled to 4/5 of the bank holidays. Because you work a Monday. If you didn't work a Monday extra annual leave would have been added.

So your normal leave will be reduced due to your bank holidays. Every Bank Holiday Monday you are having 2? extra hours off than if you were working a 5 day week. So they take this off your annual leave entitlement.

I think this would make the figures add up.

Think about it this way - you're only getting 21.5 days rather than everyone else's 28 days, but you only need to book 4 days to get a full week off whereas they need to book 5 days to get the same.

Your days off are "worth more" than theirs because they technically only get 8 hours off work, whereas as you get 10.

You should also earn holiday quicker than they do because your days are compressed.

Agree with others that this is why it should be fully calculated in hours instead because it would be fairer.

It's either hours or days, you're saying both?

They are wrong though 28 pro rata is 22.5 days not 21.5 days

She's getting the same days as someone who works 4 days a week and does regular hours during the fours days though surely? There must be some adjustment for the fact she works more hours than that.

They are correct that your annual allowance should reduce, but they've got the calculation wrong.

You've gone from 5.6 weeks (28/5) to 5.375 weeks (21.5/4), you have lost out.

5.6/4 is 22.4 days, so this is what your entitlement should be. Your work may have rules on rounding that mean they give you 22 or 22.5 days, if so I don't think you'd have anything to complain about (provided they can point to the rule), but with 21.5 you do.

I think they may have it a bit wrong. Although I’ve made some assumptions! Based on a 40hr week.

Mon - Fri - 8 hrs a day = 28 days holiday or 224 hours

Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri - 10yrs a day = 22.4 days or 224 hours

The hours should always be the same you will get less days off as you need to book 10hrs off for a whole day. If you got 28 days off you would be 280hrs off.

I hope that makes sense!

If you book 40 hours of leave, does your "days remaining" count go down by 4 days or 5? If it goes down by 5 they are wrong, if it goes down by 4 they might be right (I haven't considered bank holidays here).

I think because she works Mondays and Fridays. She gets extra hours off for a bank holiday. So her co-workers use 8 hours for each bank.holidays they have. But she gets 10 hours off for each bank holiday.

This will reduce her annual leave.

It doesn’t matter if they work it in days or hours - as long as it is consistent. They can’t give you leave in hours but take it off in days! Or the other way round.

The previous poster who mentioned bank holidays has a good point - a normal bank holiday is 7.5h so if you don’t work that day you would have to ‘pay back’ 2h annual leave. Sadly hardly ever get a Bank Holiday Wednesday.

I think you should have less than 28 days, but more than 21.5.

28 days for someone working 8 hour days is 224 hours of holiday.

21.5 days for someone working 10 hour days is 215 hours of holiday.

So you are missing 9 hours of holiday.

You do 4 x 10 hour days. FTE does 5 x 8 hour days

I assume that is the case

You work the same number of yearly hours so should have the same number of yearly hours annual leave

28 x 8 hour days = 224 hours
21.5 x 10 hour days = 215 hours

So you are short 9 hours

Because you're looking at hours not days.

If you were to get the same days off as those working x5 days then you would receive more leave than them. You receive the same as to take one weeks holiday you need x4 days where as they require 5.

• FT is 40 hours
• you are working 40 hours
• you get the same AL as any other FT employee.
• you pro rata if your hours and salary are also pro rata.

It appear you are correct on what you say.
If a colleague takes a day off, they take 8 hours, whereas you book 10 hours to get the same day off.

The OP is talking specifically about annual leave though, not total holidays (the latter would include BHs). In fact, the post I quoted says "(not including bank holidays)"

If time off is booked in hours they shouldn't pro rate it.

I.e. you should get e.g. 5 weeks worth of time off, and if you do that in days it would be 20 days (instead of 25) but in hours it would still be 200 hours (for a forty hour working week).

You say the remaining availability shows in days: Did they originally set that up so they were calculating those 'days' based on a standard 7:30/8:00hr shift, and have corrected/recalculated it for your 10:00hr shift?

The amount of leave she is allowed would automatically be decreased after they take into account the bank holidays.

She'll have to speak to her work.

But where I currently work,the give you your annual leave. And then work out how much you can take after bank holidays. If you work pro rata.

So if you work Mondays but only work part time, the annual leave you can take if reduced. If you don't work Mondays you get extra leave added to your annual leave.

It's automatic.

Not sure if I'm explaining it properly. But my leave is pro-rata. And is dictated by how many bank holidays I get.

So if Op like me is entitled to every single bank holiday,because her workplace is shut anyways, then her leave entitlement will be reduced accordingly.