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?

Yeah that’s it. They've said allowing full time staff to do this will make things difficult and possibly cause disruption to the team / workload, but it's easier to manage with a part time employee. We have asked about this before, but they said there was nothing they could do about it.

It’s not a day’s leave for her though it’s 3/5th’s of a day. That is the issue. The rest of the day she has to take annual leave.

Management have allowed this, likely to ensure the 3 days extra cover in weeks of bank holiday which totally makes sense from work point of view and makes everyone else's life easier.
The downside is that everyone else perceives this as the other person having better flexibility. Surely that's just the outcome of getting the full 3 days cover those weeks.
The person working a bank holiday with everyone else off would likely be less effective too.

I got that once because I don't usually work Fridays. "Lucky you we'll all be here tomorrow working....! (and getting paid, but that wasn't added....🤔) Squeezed around my job is full on care for a very disabled husband. So I explained this- once and once only. Never said again..

I think this poor part time colleague can't win by the sound of it.

Well if she worked BH she’d get the bank holiday hours credited to her leave card so she would be no worse or better off

There’s no perfect solution here that’s ‘fair’ to everyone.

Sounds like your employer is going for the closest they can get.

Full time people get 28 days, 8 on fixed dates, 20 on random days. So full time people get to choose what day they take 71% of their holiday days on. Or to put it another way 4 weeks they can take at any point.

Part time person probably gets 17 days holiday total (maths says 16.8). If they had to use those 17 days towards all of the bank holiday days, many years they’d have to use 7 of them for bank holidays when the office is closed. Leaving just ten days leave for the whole year they can take when they want. (Or 58% of their holiday). Or in weeks, they’d only get three weeks (of their 3 days weeks) to take when they want.

So, fixed bank holidays for all - part time worker gets a lot less choice on when to take their leave.

Practically, the swap method probably doesn’t work for Christmas, New year and Boxing Day. So they’re probably only actually getting to shuffle around the bank holiday Mondays.

So, they have three fixed days out of 17. Everyone else has 8 fixed days out of 28.

They get a slightly higher % of their total leave to take on days they want (rather than having to take when office is closed). But, the other solution leaves them with significantly less.

They probably come worse off from other factors. Eg. No one ever says let’s wrap up early on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. It does sometimes happen on Fridays. They’ll never get that benefit.

So does the part-time get pro rata on 20 or 28 days annual leave?

Maybe you need to look for a job that has full time flexible contracts that would allow you to work bank holidays and give you a lieu day.

Presumably you knew this was your contract when you started though.

Technically, she’s effectively being allowed to accrue a day off in lieu. We have a number of part time staff and all holidays including bank holidays are pro rated; of course if a staff member doesn’t regularly work when a bank holiday falls, their annual leave apportion is banked. We have some full & part time staff who work longer days and then earn time off in lieu. Workplaces become petty if staff think others are getting more than they are entitled to—if we did the time off in lieu for part timers some full timers would be disgruntled with the very small advantage your coworker gets. I’m sure we would have to offer it to all part timers which could create problems. If your team is so disgruntled they need to take it up with HR.

Part time workers are entitled to pro rata bank holidays whether they work a Monday or not.

You did in most places I worked too.

They'd work out the hours and add it to your annual leave entitlement.

No it’s not a full day she is accruing.

She is accruing 3/5th’s of a day’s holiday!

She is not entitled to the full day bank holiday.

Part time worker gets pro rata of 28 days

This really is dreadfully petty

Yep. And I'm glad I don't work there.

This is the usual situation for part time workers. Full time staff feel cheated when part time workers actually get less than them 😅

It doesn’t make any difference though. If she worked Tues-Thurs permanently she would still get 3/5 bank holiday added to her allowance for every bh. That’s standard for part time.

Totally agree - as i say many a time, if you have time to discuss and notice these things you must not have enough work to be doing, It none of anyone's business

My department loves a good whinge and when I changed my days to Tues-Thursday and told them about the BH benefit the response was generally ‘good for you’!

but actually those days work better and people appreciate me being in on Thursday rather than Monday

OP is annoyed that the part time member has accrued 3/5th of a day’s holiday. I can’t believe it actually. How petty.

Would you prefer it if part time workers on 2-3 days a week HAVE to take the bank holiday every other Bank holiday Monday? Then they wouldn’t be choosing or accruing any bank holiday entitlement. Or do you think it’s ok to leave it up to the HR manager and staff member?

You do realise if Christmas falls on a part time workers work day, as it did last year, they will be using holday entitlement for part of Christmas day. Because they don’t get the full day as bank holiday entitlement.

Ok so technically she's getting slightly more choice in how she uses her bank holidays by switching her working hours the week of a bank holiday which others are not able to do it seems because your employer won't allow you the option to work from home on bank holidays. This option was offered to the part-timer so really that's the only issue and the one to go to HR with. I'm not a fan of taking something from someone's t&cs to make things fairer but I'm in favour of adding something to other t&C's to make things fair.

The part time worker would be advised to report you all to HR for discussing her like this.

It was just in conversation, with the part time employee there. She said that she felt it was unfair for full time staff to have more holidays and pay, and that started the conversation. We weren't just huddled in a corner gossiping about her she was right there with us.

Sounds like the FT workers in your office are a bunch of cunts