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?

Quick question - what if people don't want to take annual leave in the week following a bank holiday? What if they have things to do at other times of the year? It's crazy I know, but it could just happen.

Plus, of course, not everyone can be off in the same week. That's a problem.

This isn't about maximising your holiday in total, it's about flexibility.

It’s only a “perk” for a part Timer who normally works Monday. If they choose any other working pattern it’s unlikely to have the same benefit at all.

so really it’s just picking Monday as a working day. Whuch May be requested for sone operational reason (busiest day) but if the perk” is removed they just move to Tuesday-Thursday and get all the extra bank holidays pro rated anyway. Just no one for some reason thinks that is unfair, as they don’t “see it”

But maybe working a day when everyone else is off doesn’t make sense.

So you would be less around for the team if you worked bank holidays and took a day off a different day instead - surely that’s the same for the part time worker

Exactly. that was one of my general points about this arrangement. (Not a major one though tbf, it does depend how lean team resource is whether this particular consequence of this arrangement would be an issue)

Chances are that due to being part time the bank holidays would be all or a large part of their holiday entitlement.

quite frankly I don’t see the issue sounds like misplaced jealousy

It depends how her holiday pay is calculated, but as far as I can see she could actually be the one who’s disadvantaged.

On a bank holiday week she still works her three days, while everyone else is effectively working 4/5ths of their usual week.

If she gets 28 days pro rata, she’s in exactly the same position as everyone else overall.

Your gripe seems to be that she can move her days and save her annual leave, while you’re tied to taking bank holidays off. But if, as you’ve said, she could work from home on the Monday, presumably anyone else could choose to work it too?

If she had all bank holiday Mondays off and also got an additional 20 days pro rata, then she would actually be getting more leave as a percentage, and I could understand why that would feel unfair.

I used to work 24 hours over a Monday and Tuesday and just took every bank holiday Monday off. I still got 20 days pro rata, plus 8 x 12-hour bank holidays, so hour for hour I did end up with more leave than full-time staff. Nobody else seemed to clock that, though 😄Or maybe they all bitched behind my back! I couldn’t have changed my days, (and I’m not sure they could have forced me to), as I had another job on the other days. If I were her, I’d be tempted to say I couldn’t do the Thursday – then she really would be on the winning side.

Part time workers have more flexibility but less pay, that's fsir. Also as a part time worker I sometimes agree to do a 4 or 5 day week to help employer out

It'll cause friction either way unless the PT person gets all the bank holiday without losing 2/5ths of a day from their AL.

Sometimes there's no solution that suits everybody and managers have to jump one way or the other and tell people to suck it up.

It wouldnt cause unwarranted friction though, as everyone would be treated the same and have to use their holidays in the same way.

I was a p/t worker disadvantaged in those circumstances by being obliged to add time over and above my pro rata allocation for bank holidays.

As I said there's no 'correct' answer.

You and I can agree to differ.

Do you mean that the PT employee is allowed to wfh on a bank holiday but the FT employees aren't allowed? If so, unless there's a legitimate business reason for that, thst does seem unfair. However that is an issue to take up with HR.

Legally employers can dictate when 100% of leave is taken if they want to.

The correct answer for all, to ensure fairness and consistency to all and to reduce people being unhappy, is to deduct bank holidays in the same way for everyone.

In op's company this isnt happening.

If it was the other way round, e.g. only FT workers could work non working days to avoid bank holidays being deducted when they occur on what would be a normal working day, it would be considered to be putting part time workers at a disadvantage.

But, it is true its up to companies to run these things as they see fit within employment law and decide whether operating an unfair system is worth some employees being unhappy.

Just thinking about it if you work TWT as your days and no Mondays and Fridays then according to the OP and others your team are clearly going to hate you as you accrue for bank holidays but may end up with none falling on the days you work and so you can take those whenever you feel like it.

Ooops I missed something! Full time workers can't chose to work on a bank holiday. That's unfair...

If it's such a big risk FT workers being put out by something so small for someone else, they'd be likely to leave over anything, and therefore it's not really a risk due to this.

This is impossible if your leave year is in line with the calendar year, as even if Christmas is on a Friday ( like this year) new year 2026 wasn’t ( new year 2027 is but that’s next years leave). As someone who works TWT it does work in my favour more years than not, but no one in my team has ever said anything.
i did once work somewhere that actually calculated the bank holidays that fell on the days you worked and added those to your leave allowance, but imagine the overhead in doing that is quite high.

Its not that it's a big risk tbh. Its unlikely this would be the sole reason a FT worker would leave. But it can cause ill feeling and divide. Some line managers and employers really underestimate how much this can impact employee relations and cause a bit of a grim environment. Which isnt good for morale, productivity etc.

I think from the thread it's obvious the vast majority of people would not be put out by this or find it a grim environment.

Sorry i was being a facetious - of course it wouldn’t bother your colleagues as most don’t even care about things like this. I have worked part time and sometimes the bank holiday timings worked in my favour and sometimes not and now I am full time i couldn’t care less if my part time colleague ends up with a couple of days they can use more flexibly over me. I can’t believe people get bothered about something so trivial in the grand scheme of scheme of things

Im basing my comments on years of advising companies and line managers on issues like this, and (unfortunately) hearing grievances connected to what appear to be small issues but can cause a lot of ill feeling, from part timers upset they missed out on one off Friday ice creams in the summer or feeling full timers got an extra WFH day when an office closed due to no water so demanding an extra WFH day themselves, to full timers complaining part timers shouldnt be allowed to book GP and vet appointments on working days.

A lot id roll my eyes at. But I have to say id fully understand why people in op's workplace would feel aggrieved by this, although I wouldnt be surprised if generally it had a bit of a negative culture all round too.

I get the feeling some would be quite shocked at what sort of things can cause (or be symptomatic of) unrest in a lot of workplaces.

She should count herself lucky. Working in an independent school part time Bank Holidays were on my day off and I just had to suck it up and got no time back in lieu. Same when coronation or royal weddings or funerals fell on my day off - didn't get any time back.

PT hours in schools and directed time is very complicated but I should not be doing double if it puts me over my directed hours. Full time teachers were supposed to one break time a week not three as I was in infants and FT junior teachers only did one a week.

Well it would never be just 12, you're legally entitled to 28 paid days off a year. So worked out properly rata for a 3 day week that would almost 17. I mean. That's the fairest way to do it.
Like I said, I do see OP's point. I just wouldn't be that fussed about it.

But there are no special exemptions for schools from employment law. Sounds like you were being done over