employment question

[dizzydo]

If a bank holiday falls on a day you normally dont work are you entitled to take the next day in lieu or do I have to take Christmas Day and Boxing Day as leave entitlement.

or is it just tough luck?

My HR manager told me that if it falls on the day you work you get if off but if you don't usually work on that day you get pro rata hours off in lieu. So I worked 3 days per week but not Mon or Fri which are usually bank holidays and I got about 4 hours a week off when it was a bank holiday week.
I don't know if that was just my company but I got the impression it was for everyone.

I've just read your question again and not sure if I answered what you're asking. Is your work open on Xmas and Boxing day? And would you have to work those days normally?

Bank holidays are not an automatic entitlement, so you would need to look at your employment contract to see if you are given them in addition to your annual leave. If not, then I don't think you would be entitled to time off in lieu.

Oh dear Freckle I dont like that answer
pinkwellies no my company will not be open on those days.

where we used to work p/t workers got pro rata of bank hols, so if working 3 days for eg you would get 3/5ths of a day off for each bank hol regardless if it fell on a working day or not. if you would normally have worked on the day a bank holiday fell you had to use a couple of hours annual leave, or make up the 2/5th of a day. if you didn't usually work that day you could add 3/5ths of a day onto your annual leave allowance.

this was an arts organisation btw, wher flexibility and overtime were both the norm, but policy asd advised as gvvd practice by acas i think.

i mentioned this to my boss when i went part-time as i chose which days to work, didn't matter to them. I had a ready prepared answer of well if you don't give me something i'll work mondays then BUT he said that yes I would get either time off in leiu or pay of the pro rata amount. I worked two days a week and get 3 hours pay everytime there's a bank holiday.

I'm sure it would depend on the company you work for but if full timers get bank holidays off then you should be entitled to the same on a pro rata basis.

Just ask them at work

ditto what has been said before
BHs are not an automatic entitlement - there is a statutory minimum of 20 days leave per year for a F/Ter, which can include BHs (although there are moves afoot to change this in the future)

Check your employment contract to see if your terms are better than the minimum.

P/T staff must (by law) be given pro-rata leave.

so if (eg) F/Ters work 40hrs & you work 20hrs, you would be entitled to half what they get as A/L & half of the BHs (if they get them). Whether you end up owning the company time or they owe you depends on what days you normally work & when the BHs in a particular year fall. Most companies follow the process mazzystar described.

Agree with the others - depends on what is in your contract.

Where I work (the NHS) you get the pro rata entitlement added to your annual leave and if a bank holiday falls on one of your working days, you deduct your hours off. If it falls on a day that you don't work, you don't do anything - but if you work the second half of the week, you benefit as you get the hours added to your annual leave but don't actually have to deduct that many back off as most bank holidays fall at the beginning of the week (iyswim) - which is why I work Wednesday to Friday

You get pro rata the same number of bank holidays as a f/t member of staff.
So, for example if someone works 3 days a week, Wed- Fri, they would be entitled to 3/5 the bank holiday entitlement of a f/t member of staff. F/t entitlement is usually 8 days, in England anyway, so a 3-day a weeker is entitled to 4.8 days, which I would round up to 5 (following me so far? ).

What I have done in organisations I have worked for is got p/t members of staff to sit down with their manager at the beginning of the year and work out which bank holidays naturally fall on their working days, and then adjust.

So if a part timer works 3 days and is entitled to 5 bank holidays, the manager would look at the calendar at the beginning of each year to see how many would automatically fall on working days - this might change each year as obviously Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years Day vary each year.
If the number of days that fell naturally on the p/t persons normal days was less than 5, the manager would ensure they took a day in lieu to make it up, usually in the same week as a bank holiday.

I hope that makes sense, it sounds a bit complicated!

Thank you everyone for your replies. That has been really helpful