Advice on bank holidays when working part-time

[Stevie77]

Can anyone advice re the following situation;

I work four fixed, full days a week, Mon-Thurs, equating to 28 hours. Our annual leave entitlement for full time workers is 25 + bank holidays, so I get 20 days.

My organisation has decided that from the coming financial year, with which our annual leave period coincides, we will be added the bank holidays to our total annual leave and will have to book them as days off. The organisation is closed during all bank holidays. This means that bank holidays have been calculated pro-rata. This is apparently to correct an unfair situation where one member of staff working Tues-Fri has been getting paid for more bank holidays than they should.

So for this coming year I will be entitled for 8 bank holidays out of the 10, which covers the days that fall on my working week. From next year, I will not be receiving enough 'bank holidays' allowance and will have to make up the short fall using my 'annual leave' days. Furthermore, a colleague working Tues-Fri will actually gain leave because they will receive exactly the same bank holidays allowance as me, bust since they will only have to book days that fall outside of Mondays, they will not need to use it all up for that purpose.

This strikes me as quite unfair despite it being as per government regulations. I understand why this needs to be this way and it is only fair however, I don't understand why I should lose out where colleague gains. I think no one should lose and no one should gain.

How is that fair for full and for part time workers?

If there is an HR person here that can shed light on this, I'd be grateful.

I agree it seems unfair - because although you get the same amount of holidays on a pro rata basis you get less choice over when to use them. If they are closing on bank holidays I don't really see how they can do it differently (unless you can change the days you work that week - so you work on the Friday, take the Monday as your day off instead?)

I think that it is actually fairer, because at the moment you are getting paid for the same amount of days as someone who works TWTF but not actually working as many days due to the bank holidays mainly falling on a Monday - you mention that will need 8 days to cover next years BH's wheras the other person would have only got 2 days.

It is a bugger that you end up with a lot of your allotment taken up with Bh but it's worth remembering that most workplaces will let you swap the bank holiday, e.g. I work WTF but if a bank holiday falls on a Friday I can choose to work TWT/MWT or to take leave.

It's what happens where I work - fair if you ask me. See if you can change your days.

What's unfair it that you've been getting all the Monday Bank Holidays when your colleague has been getting hardly any.

The new system is exactly as it should be. Everyone gets exactly the same (pro-rata) entitlement to time off.

The usual way to deal with Bank Hols for part timers is add together all leave days (ie company days + Bank Hols) then pro rate.

Some days may be predetermined as hols for all eg Banks Hols when the business shuts / shut down for factory etc. The rest you can choose

So yes, it is fair to calculate total leave in the way you've described - when you take it is a separate matter

(HR manager)

That is similar to our system. Surely one of those days would be Good Friday when you are off anyway. Ask if you have the option to work the Friday instead of taking AL.

Exactly what happens where I work too.
Our leave is all worked out in hours and the BH hours are added to our A/L hours and then if a BH falls on a day we are usually at work all these hours are taken straight off our leave at the start of each year. If Xmas, boxing or new years day fell on a day that you do not usuall work ie Friday in your case, then the hours would not be taken off your total.
It is a fair system to all staff (and employers).

How your employer is going to do it is absolutely correct. It does mean that if you work on a Monday, you are worse off in terms of having to use some of your annual leave to cover the bank holidays but you have been getting a lot more days off than your colleague who works on a Friday so how is that fair?

I chose to work TWTF for that very reason.

Agree that if you don't want to use your leave, ask if you can swop days on the weeks with bank hols in them.

Thanks everyone, makes more sense now knowing someone was losing out (although that's not what my HR said, apparently that person has been over compensated).

I still feel that whilst this is the fairest method in theory, it is not fair when applied in reality. But it is what it is. I'm sure it'll be fine for me to swap days on those weeks and maybe in the long term change my work pattern altogether.