Working out pro-rata holiday entitlement in part time job - please help!

[Goprogo]

I'm starting a job in 2 weeks time. I've never worked part-time before and just cannot get my head round how much holiday I will get and I NEED to know because of childcare and school holidays etc.

So I phoned up HR and this very nice woman threw some figures at me and sped through her calculations but I couldn't make head nor tail of them. And then even though I asked her twice I am still befuddled about Bank/Public Holidays.

I wonder if any kind MN bod could extrapolate the formula that might have been used to come up with the rates she quoted me:

Firstly the holiday allowance for FULL-TIME workers is 26 days and In addition there is a Bank Holiday allowance of 6 days

I will be working 18.5hrs a week over 4 days. I am contracted to work Mon-Thurs. The service I work in will be shut on Bank Holidays/Public Holidays.

The HR person deduced the following:
My pro-rata holiday allowance based on an 18.5hr week = 96.5hrs
MY pro-rata Bank Holiday allowance based on an 18.5hr week = 22.5hrs

How did she come up with those figures?!! I think the missing link might be how many hours constitutes FULL-TIME - is it 37hrs, 37.5hrs or 40 hrs. She seemed to use the figure '7' in her calculations - couldn't work out if that meant 7 hours paid a day for a full-time worker (with an unpaid hour for lunch which would make an 8hr day x 5 = 40 hr working week?)

Anyway - my biggest worry is the Bank Holidays. If I can't work on a Bank Holiday because my place of work is closed will I not be paid? As far as I can see the service I work for will be closed for at least 10 public holidays. Will I have to make up the extra time or get my pay docked once I exceed my pro-rata allowance of 22.5hrs?

I just have such a mental block when it comes to these things and feel totally thick at the moment which is not a good feeling when I am about to start my first proper paid job in over 6 years!

I just act on the assumption HR are right which is dangerous.

Fwiw I work mon- weds - last year I got 15 days but this year I only get 13 because there are more Monday bank holidays. So they just take the bank hols they won't be paying you for off your overall
Allowance I think.

That might all be bollocks!

www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

What are your hours of work? How many hours will you work on a Monday?

Is it def 6 bank hols not 8?

What are the 10 bank holiday??
New Year's Day one
Easter Friday and Monday
2 x may
1x August
2 x xmas/Boxing Day one

That's only 8 and if you don't work Fridays you can disregard Easter Friday.
You allowance of 18.5 hours divided by 7 is about 2.6 hours per bank holiday -

I think that they have calculated it based on a working week being 5 days (even though you only work 4 days). That is how we calculate part time hours. If you divide 18.5 by 5 then multiply by 26 or 6 you get 95.2 (rounded up to 95.5) and 22.2 (rounded up to 22.5).
Is that 6 BH? There are 8 per year?

I would call HR again and ask them to explain it again and then send it to you in writing with the explanation

X

The hours look about right. Given we don't know what the full time hours per day are, it's easier if we consider the full time holiday in terms of weeks, rather than hours.

A full time person, working a 5 day week gets 26 days holiday, i.e. 5.2 weeks. 5.2 x your 18.5 hours a week works out to 96.2 hours, which they will presumably round up to 96.5.

Full time gets 6 BH days, i.e. 1.2 weeks. 1.2 x 18.5 = 22.2, rounded up to 22.5.

So, you get a total of 109 hours holiday & bank holidays.

If your workplace is closed on BH days, they will probably deduct all those hours from your total holiday and BH allowance, even though you don't have a choice whether to work on those days. You need to add up the total hours you would miss due to your workplace being closed. Then subtract that from your total holiday hours to tell you how much holiday you have left. They may let you make up hours if the timing of bank hols is punishing due to your working hours.

I make it the same as Firstliftlastcall and I imagine you are right with the 7 paid hours a day theory (although who came up with the idea of you working 18.5 hours? That's a nice neat 0.5 of a 37-hour working week). And yes you will probably have to take any excess bank holidays from your normal leave allowance once you've exceeded the 22.5 hours. This is why it's always best to avoid Monday working if possible if you're in a part-time pattern! (Unless you're at one of those places where they just don't bother working it out like that, in which case those who don't work Mondays often miss out.)

BrieandChilli I guess I mean 'Public Holidays'
We get 2 New Year
Good Friday
Easter Monday
2 in May
1 day in July
Beginning of August
Christmas Day
Boxing Day

mumwithatum - I think you've hit on the right formula - thanks for that! I'm sure I will get it all in writing but just wanted to be ahead of the game. The hours fit around school hours (just about!) but the holidays are going to be a bloody nightmare with a partner who can't take time off at a drop of a hat for sickness (freelance, no holiday pay, no option of working from home, main breadwinner and all that) and no family support nearby.

I guess I'll find out soon enough. Jeez my holiday allowance will reduce drastically once I've done my 22.5hrs. I guess there might be an opportunity to take it as unpaid leave? I never even thought about the impact of working Mondays in a part-time shift pattern. Live and learn eh?!

Is there any way you could change working pattern to Tues-Fri, if not immediately, then in future?

I work 3 full days, Tues-Thurs, so get a BH allowance of 5 days (3/5th of 8 rounded up). However, I only have to cover xmas and NY, 3 max and sometimes less if they fall on one of my days off. The extra days are added to my holiday allowance.

However, colleagues working Mon-Weds, get same allowance and have to cover more days. For this reason, a number of my part-time colleagues have switched to working same days as me over the years, specifically to maximise holiday allowance. However, we are lucky in that we are in design consultancy, so its not critical which days people work.

Alternatively, do you have an option to buy extra days (and would this be a financial possibility?). We get the option of 5 extra days (even part-timers!) which I always buy whilst we still holidaying with teenagers.