Holiday entitlement if you work part-time ...

[Millie1]

At the moment I work part-time on a rotating 2/3 day week. I'm entitled to 24 days leave per annum and get 12 of these days pro-rata. This means, however, that I still get my almost 5 weeks a year because I only work half the week.

I may be changing to another position where I work part-time but for 4/5 hours each day. If the leave is still prorata, then I'll still get approx 12 days but this will only be 2.5 weeks. This seems crazy cos I'll be going into the office 5 days each week albiet working less hours than my colleagues. Have I intrepred this correctly, or should I get my full 24 day entitlement or .... really dumb question ... will the 12 days be calculated as 12 x 7 hour days but given that I work shorter days, will it actually work out as more.

Okay, it doesn't even make sense to me reading it back but maybe someone can shed some light

Ooooh, full of spelling mistakes - ooops!

If you work every day (5 days) you should get the same holiday entitlement as a full time person surely because you are there every day. I work 3 days a week and my employer gives 4 weeks holiday (plus bank holidays) so my holiday entitlement is 3(days that I work) x 4 (hol entitlement) = 12 days which obviously if I took in whole weeks would be 4 weeks the same as everyone else. Hope this doesn't sound like double dutch and is a bit of help at least. The ACAS website or similar should be able to help you with a calculation.

You will get 24 days annual leave.

Your working day is 4 hours, you get 24 x 4hr days off.

If you're working 4/5 hours everyday you'll be entitled to more than 12 days surely? A 5 hour day over 5 days is almost 70%. So you should be entitled to at least 16 days. And you'd be even better off if you work it out as hours rather than days.

24 days x 7 hours = 168 times by your 70% (for arguments sake) is 117.6 divided by your 5 hour day gives 23 days ish.

Does that make sense?!

I was just using the 12 days as an example of how it worked pro-rata - I think SG has explained it better (and shorter) than I did!

Thanks everyone ... the copy I have (here at home) of our employee manual states 'for part-time workers, leave shall be pro-rata per the entitlement in table A' .... my entitlement in table A is 24 days but it's the use of the word 'pro-rata' that worries me. However, it is an old old copy (about 6 years) and I think, from looking at the ACAS webite (thanks TwoToTango) I ought to be entitled to a minimum of 4 weeks (or whatever I'm due). I'll go prepared to argue the case.

Thanks again!

yes, it is usually calculated in hours.

in essence, if you work 5 x half days a week then you'll be entitled to 24 x half days hol. or nearly 5 weeks.

If your entitlement full time is 24 days, your part-time entitlement is 120 hours. I've worked that out as a normal working day being 5 hours, therefore 5 x 24.

Millie1, as others have said your leave will be 24 days if you are working the same number of days as a full timer. the pro rata element will be in the number of hours so, for example a full timer working 7 hours a day will get paid for 7 hours per day of his or her 24 days of annual leave whilst you will get paid 4.5 hours for each of your 24 days of annual leave.

do you work for IBM ??

I'm having a struggle with my holiday entitlement - but it's worked out like this.

I work 24 hrs a week (doesn't matter what days), so I received 125 hrs of holiday PLUS 64% of bank hols - can you workd yours out like this ?

When you work hourly, then it makes sense your holiday entitlement is hourly too.

millie1, my employment manual very much said the equivalent. I made a representation to HR that the pro rata language only applied to people who work pt but full days, not like you and me who work all weekdays but reduced hours. The company put it in front of some internal employment committee and agreed with me.

Reduced hours pt is less common full days pt, so sometimes the companies get it wrong.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. No, not IBM Mojomummy but certainly a large multi-national. I'm off work for a week so can't check the up-to-date entitlement but what you all say makes perfect sense and is pretty much what I concluded at 1am this morning (the things we fret about!) but just needed someone else to tell me that I wasn't being ridiculous!

I work 4 hours a day Mon-Fri and I get the same holiday entitlement as full timers - i.e. 21 days.

So each of my "days", although only 4 hours, is a day off my holiday entitlement.

HTH