Holiday entitlement

[littlefireseverywhere]

I've been employed for 3 years with the same company (it's a charity, but not relevant). My contract states as I'm part time that ' is allowed 15 days holiday (pro rata from 25 days full time) and Bank Holidays. I took that to mean that I could then have ALL the bank holidays plus my holiday entitlement. This is as it's been with my current manager too. They've now left and the new CEO of the charity, thinks that as I'm only part time I should get part time bank holiday entitlement. Where do I stand with this?

Surely you just get bank holidays that fall on a day you would normally work.

I’d have thought you’d get pro rata’d bank holidays. There are lots of threads about this. I guess it’s possible they might have gone with “pro rata holiday and any bank holidays that fall within your working hours” especially if the whole place is closed on those days. But I think usually it’s pro rata bank holiday entitlement that you use to take any BH where you’re supposed to be working.

You should get pro rata'd equivalent of the bank holidays. Your colleagues who work full time get full time bank holidays, part time get their part time equivalent.

I'm part time and get pro rata BHs. If one falls on a working day, it is automatically deducted. Other than that, I'm free to use them along with the rest of my holiday allowance

I don't work Mon/Fri so have never really taken much notice of BHs.

It sounds like perhaps you do work Mon or Fri which coincides with most BHs, so are now more noticeably affected?

Full time employees get 33 days in total in a typical year (25 days plus 8 bank holidays). You are therefore entitled t 33 / 5 * 3 = 19.8 days total. Any bank holidays that fall on your normal working days come out of that. Your previous manager was giving you more than your legal entitlement.

This

You've been there three years and always been treated a certain way. Try dropping the phrase "custom and practice" and see how you get on. You could argue your interpretation is now an implied contract term as it's how things have been done for three years.

You should get pro rated bank holidays, of course you’re not entitled to them all

Exactly this.

You've been getting more holidays than you have been entitled to. You get pro rata holidays including pro rata bank holidays

I know you've posted in legal, so hopefully someone with the right knowledge will come along to be able to help.

As per pp, IANAL, and would have thought it should be pro rata which would be the norm, but my reading of your contract IMHO suggest you get all of the BH.

Thanks everyone, I was wondering what the precedent was if I’d already worked there under different rules. My contract hasn’t changed, just the interpretation of it.

As I've already said, "custom and practice." It doesn't matter what your contract says in writing - it's about how your holidays have actually been applied for the last three years.

Not an open-and-shut case, but definitely worth exploring. If you're aware of anyone else in the same boat, that could be helpful - giving weight to the argument of 'but that's how we've always done it here.'

Most companies its 20 days plus bank holidays not 25. I've been employed for 36 years and never been given 25 days annual leave.

Custom and practise only applies if it is well established, consistently applied to all employees with no variation and known to, and expected by, the entire workforce. It must also be something that is not explicitly covered by the contract. In this case, the incorrect holiday entitlement appears to have applied only to part-time employees reporting to OP's manager. Unless it was being applied consistently to all part-time employees, a claim is unlikely to succeed.

The CEO is right.

Otherwise it would be very unfair as you would get either more (working Monday Friday) or less (not working those days) than everyone else.

Usually the days are pro rata, so if you do work Monday Friday you will owe them days

No they don't. The legal minimum is 28 days. BH are not a legal entitlement - only statutory ones are eg Christmas and New Year.

I’d also ensure that your 15 days are the equivalent of a full-time day. It’s best to work it out in hours.
So if you worked every day for 4 hours then you’d be entitled to the same number of days as a full timer but they’d be 4 hour days.
it would be easier to cope with the change in BH time off if you’re getting your full entitlement and if Mondays were not part of your normal working week.

20 is the legal minimum. Lots of companies give more, many give a few days more for service milestones. My mum has worked at her job for 25 years and now gets 30 days holiday allowance plus bank holidays

The 33 days holidays are what OPs employers offer. We know 28 days is the statutory minimum but OPs employers offer more than that I.e. 25 + 8 = 33

Full time employees at OP's employer get 33 days. A part-time worker must not be treated less favourably than a full-time worker. She is therefore entitled to 19.8 days paid holiday as per my calculation. Bank holidays are not, somehow, different, as witness the fact that many employers give 20 days plus bank holidays.

No, 28 is the legal minimum for employees working 5 days a week. In a normal year there are 8 bank holidays, so an employer that closes down on bank holidays can give 20 days plus bank holidays.

Provided OP works the same number of hours each day, there is no need to calculate in hours. It will produce the same answer as calculating in days. If she works a 4-hour day, taking 2-hours off would be a half day holiday.

That's absolutely not true. Just because it's your experience. Loads of places offer more holiday. Your comment sounds very much like a race to the bottom.