Part time workers and bank holidays. Fair or unfair?

[crunchiesnuts]

I know that it’s completely legal and up to the employer, but I’m just curious about what people think about this.

I’m part of a small team (there are 7 of us in total). Everyone works full time, 5 days a week, except for one person who is part time, working 3 days a week. This person works Monday-Wednesday. When there’s a bank holiday, they switch their days and work from Tuesday to Thursday instead. Like I said, I know this is all above board and our manager is fine with it, but the rest of the team feels it’s a bit unfair since they don’t have a say and have to use their annual leave regardless.

I’m kind of torn on it. I know this person asked to work Mondays when she took the job, so it feels a bit like having the best of both worlds, but I also get not wanting to burn through almost all your annual leave just for the bank holidays. Recently, this person has mentioned how she doesn’t complain about the fact that the rest of us get more holidays and better pay (which is a bit confusing since we work more hours, so naturally, we would), but it’s stirred up some tension in the office, and I guess, some people think she’s rubbing it in their face. I’m just interested in hearing what others think. Even though it’s legal, do you see it as fair or unfair?

I think you're being silly.

Nothing unfair about this at all.

oh god, so it's just a bunch of whiners moaning about someone having a teeny-tiny perk?

Bank holidays are factored in for part time workers as pro rata in addition to their annual leave entitlement. So a three day a week worker will get 3/5ths of each bank holiday as paid for leave.

Your poor colleague then. Still doing her required hours but got her team mates behind her back resenting her for, basically, being part time and at the mercy of a holiday policy she has zero control over....glad that's not my office.

I think you should all stop talking about her tbh. If you've got a problem go to HR.

So are you bank holidays included in your annual leave allowance? If so it does seem a little unfortunate that you have to use your annual leave to account for the public holiday but she can work an extra day and keep the annual leave to take at a different time.
If you had annual leave plus public holidays then she would have to use some of her annual leave to get all the public holidays. I used to work part time and worked a Monday and depending when Christmas and new year fell I sometimes had to pay time back for the public holidays that fell out with my allocated number.
I used to do the spread sheet for all my colleagues so depending which days you worked you might be due annual leave days or might have to pay them back.
So it's right in that you all get the correct number of days off but not so fair as you don't get to choose where you take your days and she does by working an extra day in a BH week

But she isn't able to work the Monday if the place is closed? This makes no sense at all.
So if she is only entitled to 0.6 of the bank holiday are you annoyed that she is accruing 0.6 of a days leave?
I think this sounds like the team all hate this part time worker and are looking for something to be annoyed about. I could not get upset about this.

Agree, I don't think bank holidays should be forming part of your annual leave. I thought for part-timers who usually work on a Monday would get some as bank holiday like everyone on a pro rata basis and would have to make the others up by working a different day (or potentially take it as leave). Not an expert in employment law though! Just based on anecdotal information from people I know who work part time.

So I work Tues-thurs and have 3/5 of BH added to my holiday allowance. Have to use for bank holidays but it often works in my favour. If I work extra days I get time off in lieu.

I think you are all being ridiculous - she’s working her hours and trying to squeeze everything into 2 days because of a bh can be inconvenient for everyone so her coming in on the Thursday is helpful.

Do you also say to her ‘enjoy your long weekend’ when she leaves on a Wednesday afternoon?

No wonder some people bitch about their colleagues if this is an example of the pettiness they put up with.

Surely if this person took all of the bank holidays off then they will significantly lose out as the difference would need to come out of their annual leave?

Perhaps everyone with nothing better to do than to moan should opt to work weekends where there is a bank holiday instead.

Your colleagues are nosy, resentful, horrors. Its none of their business what she does.
Whu are you on the fence?

The real problem is that at least half the bank holidays are always on a Monday, so someone is going to be advantaged / disadvantaged regardless. I rarely swap days as it’s tricky to do round childcare, but I chose not to work Mondays partly for this reason. If I did work Mondays, more often than not there’d be more bank holidays I’m forced to take than I’m given leave for as even the floating ones disproportionately land on a Monday.

Exactly. In my job I literally cannot work the Monday on a BH as we are shut. I work the Friday instead as I can't afford as I said upthread to lose 8hrs in my working week because of what I do. If I do not do that, as well, I also have to take the Monday from my annual leave entitlement.

I used to have every Monday as my day off ( not my choice I would have preferred Friday) so my bank holidays were given back on a pro rata basis as annual leave.
I know that annoyed my coworkers but frankly I didn’t care.

Ime full time workers are envious of part time staff but wouldn’t like the part time pay.

We haven’t been talking about her. It's an open office and everyone was just chatting about it. The comments about full time staff getting more holidays and pay being unfair kicked off the conversation, and it just went from there really

OK so as well as this colleague who else is in her situation? Because if she is the only one, you categorically are talking about her. Again, the holiday policy is an HR issue- she's working with what she's got the same as I do! I know for a fact my managers are grateful that I do this because of my workload.

Everyone?? Or just some incredibly petty people stirring up others and starting a witch hunt?

Yes that’s it unfortunately. We do have the option to work from home occasionally, so she could still work the Monday but from home instead.

So are you saying she should work on Monday even though it’s a Bank Holiday and the rest of the team gets them off? Or are you saying she should forfeit 8 days annual leave for Bank Holidays, even though nobody else has to do that? Or are you saying she shouldn’t be allowed to work the extra day and should forfeit 8 days salary even though nobody else has to do that?

AND this affects women more than men due to so many women going part time to do unpaid caring work etc.

You resent someone getting a choice when to use their extra 0.6 of a day’s holiday?

What’s the alternative, they come in for 2/5th of the day so they don’t have to use their actually annual leave entitlement on a bank holiday or they just swap their days. I know which is more productive.

Why don’t you just work or Is your business not open bank holidays?

Could you request that your boss opens the office on bank holidays? That way you could all work on bank holidays and have other time off.

Couldn't the people who are moaning do this as well then?

So are you bank holidays included in your annual leave allowance? If so it does seem a little unfortunate that you have to use your annual leave to account for the public holiday but she can work an extra day and keep the annual leave to take at a different time

As long as the full time staff get at least 28 days leave a year it doesn't make any difference whether this is 28 days 'leave' or 20 days AL plus 8 BHs (assuming they're in England, I know Scotland and possibly NI gets an extra BH but I don't know the legal implications of this)

And seeing as their workplace is closed on Mondays then the full timers don't have any choice about not working on the Monday.

Obviously the part timer does have a choice, but I'm sure that if she took the Monday off and only worked 2 days that week so got behind with her work, they'd complain about that too - that's part of the issue, one day is 33% of her working week but only 20% of the FT staff, so a bigger impact on available effort.

What is the FT holiday allowance? Is it 28 days including BH? (minimum legal requirement) or is it more?

If your holiday allowance includes BH, then the PT person should be on the same (pro-rated) structure.

So if FT is 37.5 hours per week and you all get 28 days including BH someone who works <say> 21h (56% of FT) would be entitled to 16 days including BH.

However the issue seems to be they have the option to change their working days whereas people who work FT don't have this option. Nothing that can be done about that really? If you work 5 days a week then you have to take annual leave to cover the BH.

However if you all get 28 days + BH then the PT person is actually working an extra day they don't need to on the week with BH?

What do they do when a BH is on a Thursday or Friday?