Bank holidays and compressed hours

[AntiHop]

I work full time, compressed hours over 4 days. I am getting mixed messages from HR about what happens if a bank holiday falls on a day that I am not at work. I know that bank holidays would be pro-rata if I was part time, but my contract is full time.

Has anyone know the right answer?

Final post on this subject...

Up to this point I've translated everything into hours as that is the recommended way of doing things. The Working Time Regulations, however, express entitlement in terms of weeks. Looking at it that way, if employees working a 5 day week have an entitlement of 25 days plus bank holidays that means they are getting 6.6 weeks (i.e. 33 days) holiday in total. The OP only works a 4 day week, albeit she is working longer hours each day, so her entitlement is 26.4 days. She loses one of these days each time a bank holiday falls on one of her normal working days. Bank holidays that fall on non-working days do not come out of her entitlement.

If the OP's employer was doing this right she would be getting the same number of hours off each year as regular employees and the same number of weeks as regular employees, but a different number of days.

If you are dealing in hours, a bank holiday (just like any other day off) reduces your holiday entitlement by the number of hours you would normally work that day, NOT the number of hours regular employees work. In the OP's case, using the figure for regular employees would be a further benefit for her, giving her even more holiday than regular employees. For someone working part time, using the figure for regular employees would penalise them and could get the employer into trouble for discriminating against part time staff.

As the OP's employer is giving more than the statutory minimum annual leave and appears to be giving the OP the same number of days off as regular employees (which discriminates in favour of the OP) there is unlikely to be a problem. However, for an employer who is only giving the statutory minimum it is important to get this stuff right otherwise they could get into trouble.

Dealing with it in hours is fine, and necessary if someone works a different number of hours each day, but I always prefer to keep it simple and stick to days rather than hours.

OP assuming you work the same number of hours each day, your holiday entitlement in days should reduce by 1/5 to 26.5 days. You are still getting the same amount of paid time off as 'normal' full timers, because you are being paid for more hours on one of your days off than they are, and only need to take 4 days off to be off a whole week.

Don't separate out bank holidays and normal holidays, that just gives yourself a headache. It's a total, and if a bank holiday falls on your normal working day, you take it off and use a day out of your holiday entitlement. If a bank holiday falls on a different day, ignore it. You are already off so don't need to take it out of holiday entitlement.

I only just learnt from bank-holiday.co.uk that not all employees have the right to bank holidays. I find that shocking!!

Not sure why you find this shocking.

All full-time employees have the right to 28 days holiday per year. For most jobs that means they get 20 days plus bank holidays but there are exceptions. If the employer needs to operate on bank holidays they do not have to give staff the day off. However, the employee doesn't lose the day. They still get the same number of days off overall.

As some have stated above your entitlement (regardless of the hours you work, you work 4 days per week) is 26.5 days per year including your entitlement to BHs. For a 5 day a week person it's 33 days including BHs.

If a BH falls on your normal contracted day and you have that day off then it comes off your entitlement, anything else left you can freely book (in accordance with your company's holiday booking rules of course)

When you take a days annual leave you get paid for that full day not the shorter day your 5 day a week colleagues get paid for.

Hi there, I work full time (37 hours) over 4 days (compressed hours) and entitled to 31 days A/L +3 days unpaid leave + bank holidays. Do I book A/L on a bank holiday and how many hours do I have to book? I do not work Wednesdays.