Bank holiday allowance for part timers

[Starshaped]

I'm just about to change my working pattern from full time to Tuesday - Friday. Does anybody know what'll happen with regard to the bank holidays that fall on Mondays (which won't be a normal working day for me)?

Do I get some sort of pro-rata allowance?

Snail - avoiding Mondays means you get to choose all of the days which use up your holiday allowance. Obviously this only applies to employees whose workplace shuts down on bank holidays.

Its not the amount of holiday that changes, but the fact that you get no choice in when to take it if the work place shuts down at certain times, therefore all employees being made to have their holiday on that particular day iyswim?

Mine are not pro-rata'd - I work four days a week, Mon-Thurs, and I get any Bank Holidays that fall on those days, but any that fall on a Friday I miss out on.

On balance, I'm probably winning, as most of them are on a Monday.

Does anyone know how it works with teachers? I work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and therefore miss all Bank Holidays? But of course I do get the school holidays.............

Goonatic, I'd say the pro rata should apply to you as much as it would anyone else. Say you had a colleague on same hours and pay as you, but happened to work a monday - every time a Bank Holiday fell, they'd get a day off that week, but you wouldn't. Not fair.

Cointreau - you should be getting 22.5 days holiday as a minimum each year. The fact that you work Mondays is neither here nor there in terms of allowance. What it does mean though is that your employer dictates when you may take approx 8 of those days per year.

I know which days I'd prefer to work

MissKeithLemon - I get 22 days holiday AND all the Bank Holidays (apart from any that fall on a Friday). So I can't complain, surely......

No Cointreau you can't I suppose!

BUT, a colleaugue who works Tues - Friday would get the same (ie 30 days) and they get to choose the actual days off. (Except Good Friday) Anything else would be against the part time workers directive. So I'd still pick Tues-Fri in your case

The reason that holiday entitlement/part time workers holiday laws were overhauled in the last decade is precisely so that no-one is better off by working one day over another.

Yep Miss KL - it works out I get more than a week extra off to tag onto normal annual leave, compared to my colleague who works Monday and has to take the Bank Holiday as it falls.

Thanks Puppy! Some people will never understand that they are the ones 'losing out' by arranging part time work to include Mondays

That's very interesting about working Mondays......

I get what you're saying, that I could pick when I have my days off, rather than having to take off the actual Bank Hols, but tbh I'd take those days off anyway - nice to catch up with DH every now and then.

I think my company are pretty generous; I can move my day off around if there is an inset day, for example, or work through lunch and leave early. I cannot complain, really.

And if I asked them to pro-rata everything, I'd only get 4/5 of the Bank Holidays, whereas currently I get nearly all of them. Maybe they aren't following the letter of the law, but it seems to be in my favour.

Cointreau if they are giving you all the bank hols they will be giving eveyone the same. It is illegal to differentiate and allow a part time worker to be unfairly disadvantaged by virtue of their working days/pattern.

Also if you didn't work Mondays you'd still have the time off with your DH on bank hols and be able to choose when to take all your holiday allowance

Hmmm.....

I'm pretty sure if I decided to work Tues-Fri they would still give me 22 days holiday plus all the bank holidays. That would be less good for me.

YES, they are doing it wrong, but if I rock the boat I will end up worse off, surely, as they will pro-rata my bank holidays. I shouldn't be getting all of them! The FT people get 25 days plus bank holidays, which would seem to be a worse deal than mine.