Do you include bank holidays in mother's help holiday allowance?

[mumtorobbie]

I have just found a lovely mother's help and I'm in the process of putting together a contract for her.

She is working 16 hours a week spread over 4 mornings and I really don't know whether to include bank holidays in her holiday allowance.

It seems a bit mean really as there are 8 which would cut her holiday down to 14 days.

Full time minimum is 20 days PLUS bank holidays. So you work them out pro rata. It is her 20 days pro rata PLUS bank hols pro rata

Thanks.

I've been trying to work out it out pro-rata but can't seem to get it right. 20 days seems alot for 16 hours a week. Am I doing it right?

I look at it as if you work 5 days you get 20 plus bh so for 4 mornings/days you would get 16 days plus bh hols. So she would get 16 mornings plus any bh that full on her working days. Don't forget although you put 16 days in the contract plus bh, she is only getting 16 x the number of hours she works off. So not being paid a whole days holiday when she would normally only get paid for 4 hours a day.

Hope that helps a little

"Am I doing it right?"

I think you were almost there but mollymole has confused you. Statutory minimum paid leave is NOT 20 days plus bank holidays pro rata, it is 5.6 weeks. So if she works 4 (part) days a week she gets 5.6 x 4 = 22.4 days which you cannot round down so would normally be rounded up to 23 days off. If 8 fall on Bank Holidays that leaves 15 , which is one day short of 4 weeks. Doesn't seem mean to me.

If the hours are spread unevenly it might be better to calculate holiday in hours rather than days.

Ahh, that makes sense. So in effect she gets 23 days (or mornings) holiday and the bank holidays are included in those 23 days.

I just want to make sure I'm being fair.

Yes the 23 days include BHs. It's fairer that way, because the employee doesn't lose out on their full entitlement even if they don't normally work on a weekday that is a BH. If you only get BHs that happen to fall on your working days, then you'd be better off working on Mondays and Fridays rather than Wednesdays (because many BHs are Mondays and Fridays, but hardly any are on Wednesdays).

However, many people don't understand this and resent that they have to "use" their holiday entitlement for time off on BHs, so I would recommend you explain this carefully!

Will do.

Many thanks.

I second explaining carefully. My nanny works Thursdays and Friday's, I give her 6 weeks holidays INCLUSIVE of bank holidays so she doesn't lose out by not working the Monday's. However she can not understand that good Friday needs to come out of her holiday allowance no matter how I explain it. She wants 20 days plus bank holidays which will mean she actually gets less than she does now but hey ho.