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?

Untrue information. Bank holidays aren’t paid unless it’s stated in your contract. My place of work doesn’t pay back holidays, if you want them off you have to use annual leave.

Or you could interpret it the other way & say she is benefitting your employer by being flexible & working extra hours on a bank holiday week so your employer loses less effective hours in that week & taking the holiday at another time that is mutually agreeable. It's all about how it is presented & TBH anyone who objects is being petty & ridiculous you all get the same holiday entitlement.
What do your colleagues say when the BH falls on a Friday - which could happen 3 times in a year & your part time colleague isn't contracted to work? Do they think she shouldn't accrue any holiday entitlement

I'm not sure what you mean sorry. There are 7 of us on the team, including the part timer, and we were all talking about it

"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"

So you were all talking about her then. I think you should all mind your own business.

In my experience offices like these always moan about something, I'd be wondering what they said about me behind my back if I were you.

Unfortunately we’re not allowed because we’re full time, we have to take it.

So WFH on BHs or tell your employer you want to come into the office. None of this is the fault of the PT worker.

Well that wouldn’t affect OP then would it?

it may be run as we did it in the NHS. Bank holidays were added to leave allowance but people who worked in departments which closed for BH had to take off enough hours from their leave allowance to cover the BH's. At the same time, holiday allowances were documented and calculated as hours not days This just brought everybody into line. Departments which were open on BH's got the same leave as everyone else and part time staff's calculations were made amazingly easier. They got the same fraction of leave as the fraction of fulltime hours that they worked and they used it by the hour as did full time staff.

Perhaps that is the issue you should be raising with management then, rather than finding what your colleague has unfair.

I get the impression none of you know how your own holiday entitlement works, let alone hers

Exactly this. My job share works the end of the week, I work the start of the week. We both get the same pro rata annual leave and bank holiday allowance but she never has to use her bank holiday allowance as she's off Mondays anyway so she ends up effectively having extra holidays. More often than not I will work an extra day at the end of a bank holiday week to claw back the hours taken for a day off I didn't want.

If your colleague took every holiday Monday off and didn't work the hours back she would end up eating into her annual leave allowance for some of them due to her being part time.

No they don’t! It’s up to the employer if they pay bank holidays. They don’t have to.

Why couldn't you all do that if you don't want to take the bank holiday as holiday?
That's seems the logical thing to do.

I think you’re all bitter and resentful that you don’t work part-time, and you’re looking for an excuse to criticise the one part-time worker who’s doing absolutely nothing wrong.

We’re not allowed to because we’re full time

So take that up with HR

Presumably you get Bank Holidays added to your holiday allowance and then you book the day off on the Bank Holiday.

Can you all choose to work the Bank Holiday and save the holiday for another day?

I am struggling with problem here. If your workplace is flexible and allows the part timer to do this, has anyone aggrieved asked to work on a weekend or do extra hours in the week to also not use their holiday on the actual BH

But full time workers are getting a day off, in that they are having a short working week. Your part time colleague is doing her normal working week hours, so there is no perk to her for a bank holiday week.

Also, you get extra holiday to cover the bank holidays. She gets extra holiday to cover 3/5 of the bank holidays… so are you saying she should be eating into her normal holiday allowance just to take bank holidays off? (I know many part time people do, but it’s hardly fair).

Maybe your full time colleagues would prefer to work an extra 2 hours a day in bank holiday weeks and then save the holiday day for another time - that would be the fair equivalent to what the part time colleague is doing and so they should raise that with management.

This doesn’t sound like a very nice place to work. They might get a bit more flexibility but the pay-off is that they get paid a lot less as well. It doesn’t affect you or any of your colleagues at all.

It has been mentioned in the past but they said it’s not possible for full time staff

I think the complaint is that when you are full time ( assuming minimum legal A/L) you get 8 days BH you have to take and 20 days free choice adding uo to 28 days
if you are part time and work Mondays in some years 6 days of the BH would be mondays but that is 75% of BH not 60% so again assuming minimum proportionae annual leave more of her 60% pro rata a/l would be taken up with fixed days off leaving her less free choice days however in years when only 4 BH fall on a monday only 50% not 60 % of Al is fixed
by not using monday BH all of her annual leave will be free choice ( well not quite sometimes Christmas and New Year fall on Tuesdays and Wednesdays)
This year New year's day was a Thursday so would not have been working anyway, she never works Friday so the same for Good Friday,
she would be working Easter Monday, the two May holidays and August,
Christmas is a Friday but the Boxing day holiday will be on Monday 28th, so this year 5/8 BH are on Mondays which is approx 62% but if she then works tuesday- thursday all her a/l in 2026 is free choice while for ft workers only 20/28 is free choice

Ok I'm a bit confused. Op do you have to use your annual leave to cover bank holidays? And have no choice in it as your workplace is closed on bank holidays?

Yes, I feel that it is WORSE for the part time worker, because they never get the extra day off, they have to work it. Obviously they will get the annual leave elsewhere, but it's just life. OP could do the same.

We HAVE to take the bank holidays off, so we reduce our annual leave allowance by 8 of our choice each year.

@crunchiesnutshow many days holiday do full timers get?