Annual leave

[MadeinLiverpool]

I am very confused with this!!

Where I work, staff with over 5 yrs service get an extra week's leave.

I've got more than 5 years service and work 30hrs a week over 4 days.

My a/l has been calculated as 20.5 days. I worked full time for a month at the start of my leave year. On the .gov calculator it shows statutory entitlement as 22.4 days or 168 hrs, and that's without taking my month full time into consideration.

When I raised it with HR I was told:

The .gov site looks like it calculates based on 20 days plus 8 bank hols and apportions over 4 days.

Work gives you 25 days but based on 4 days gives you 20 plus .4 for the month you worked full time plus 8 days annual leave instead of apportioning them. Most employers apportion the bank hols for part timers.

Does that make sense to anyone? Am I being a bit dim?!

I would calculate your week's annual leave in hours rather than days so 4 weeks at 30 hours + 1 week of 30 hours for your long service award.

A Bank holiday would be allocated if it fell on your normal work day.

Does that make sense?

25 x 0.8 = 20 - so that bit is correct. But you have done 11 months at 0.8 contract and 1 month at 1.0 contract.

25÷12= 0.2 roughly, so they've been generous to give 0.4 for the month you've worked full time.

Then it seems that they are saying that they give the 8 bank holidays over and above your annual leave, not pro-rata. Does your work place open on bank holidays? Do you have to use annual leave to cover time off on the BH?

If what you've said is as I've read it, they've expressed it as 20.5 days, but you actually get 28.5 days including bank holidays. That's worth double checking with them, but may be where the confusion lies.

Thanks both.

I normally have Thurs off and get all bank hols off as office is shut and I don't have to take leave on those days.

I'd prefer my leave in hours rather than days I think, as I sometimes like to take an hour off to get an early finish.

Do I have to have it calculated in days?

It's up to your employer whether they let you take leave in odd hours or as whole days or half days.

The government calculator is for your statutory entitlement only. Your employer appears to offer more than the statutory minimum holidays.

The 168 hours or 22.4 days that the government calculator gives you includes bank holidays. As all bank holidays fall on your working days that means your statutory entitlement is 14.4 days plus bank holidays. Your employer is giving you a lot more than that.

It sounds like full time staff work 37.5 hours per week and get 25 days plus bank holidays giving a total of 33 days per year. On that basis you would be entitled to 26.4 days including bank holidays if you worked 30 hours per week all year. You should be entitled to an additional 0.55 days for the month you work full time taking the total to 26.95 days which I would round up to 27 days. That means you are entitled to 19 days plus bank holidays. They are actually giving you 20.5 days plus bank holidays so they are being generous. That's because they have treated bank holidays as separate and given you the full 8 days. As you work all bank holidays that works in your favour. If 2 or more bank holidays were to fall on your normal working days their calculation would leave you with too little holiday.

Regardless of whether your holiday entitlement is calculated in hours or days your employer is entitled to insist that you take it in half days or whole days.

Yes, given that you work on Mondays routinely, the office is closed on bank holidays and you don't have to take leave for them, you may not be realising that actually you are being given paid leave (annual leave/holiday) for those days and that legally your employer is not obliged to. They can actually shut the office on those days and make you take it as unpaid leave. So you are definitely getting way over and above the statutory minimum.

As for how to take the leave, your employer can actually dictate exactly when they want you to take every single hour of your leave, legally. They could come to you and say that they want you to take leave on the following dates. Most employers allow the employee some say in when they take leave, but to answer your question, if your employer chooses to calculate in days and refuses to calculate in hours, they are within their rights.

Thank you everyone, I am clearly onto a Good Thing, with my BH days. Hadn't really considered that.