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Original poster

How would these p/t hours work with bank hols?

27 replies

Honey1975 · 03/04/2017 21:50

I'm hoping to try working my part time hours, currently spread across 5 half days, differently by working all day Monday, 8.30-1.00 tues, weds, thurs & then have Friday's off.
I can't get my head around the bank holidays though and what that would mean for me. Would I need to work the Tuesday all day instead of the bank holiday monday, and then still have the friday off in that week?

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 03/04/2017 21:53

Your bank holiday entitlement would be calculated as a number of hours rather than days. If there is a bank holiday it would be deducted from those hours. What to full timers get with regards to holidays/bank holidays as you should get a pro rata equivalent

Ginmakesitallok · 03/04/2017 21:54

You get the bank holidays pro rata. If you were due to work a bank holiday but are taking it off then you take however many hours you would have worked off your annual bank holiday allowance. If you don't have enough hours you need to take some annual leave hours. At least that's how it works for me. Otoh I'm lucky to be able to work flexibly, so I just swap my days about, or work the bank holiday.

Original poster
Honey1975 · 03/04/2017 22:00

We don't work any bank holidays at all. Everyone has them off.

OP posts:
Gizlotsmum · 03/04/2017 22:04

I get a pro rata number of hours for bank holidays. I need to book leave if I would have been working the day the bank holiday fell even though we don't work bank holidays

dementedpixie · 03/04/2017 22:08

You are entitled to the equivalent of 5.6 weeks holiday and the bank holidays can be included within that or can be additional depending in the employer. If you are off the bank holiday then the hours are deducted from your entitlement

SkiBike007 · 03/04/2017 22:17

Most bank hols are a Monday (but not all eg Easter Friday, Xmas & Boxing Day vary) so I don't work Mondays as usually you can get penalised if you are P/T and end up using extra leave to cover not working Monday, for this reason I work tues-fri and most years "gain leave". I'm given annual leave in hours, this is so if you work a non-std day like 5hrs per day, 4days per week and your leave is 4weeks per year inc bank hols (Pro rata) you would get
5hrs x 4days x 4wks = 80hrs total
Then if it's a bank hol you have to use 5hrs of your leave to "book it off" or some companies may let you cover those 5hrs over the rest of the week, working longer days to make it up.

CharlieandLolaCat · 03/04/2017 22:21

OP, your bank holiday allowance is still prorated in exactly the same way as your normal holiday allowance.

So, for example, let's say the standard holiday allowance at your company is 25 days plus all bank holidays (8 days in England) for a full time person which is 33 days and that you worked say 5 half days days per week, you would get 50% of all holidays. So 50% of 33 days so 16.5 days.

What this means is that for every bank holiday that you would otherwise have worked, you need to deduct this from your total allowance of 16.5 days and this should be done at the beginning of the annual leave year to ensure you don't overtake your leave.

In your case it is probably easier to turn your allowance into hours. So let's say that your standard working week is 35 hrs, each working day is therefore 7 hours. Your holiday entitlement is therefore 7 x 16.5 = 115.5 hours. Therefore each time you take a day off, including any bank holidays, you deduct from your allowance the number of hours you would otherwise have worked.

Obviously all of the above needs to be adjusted for your circumstance. Hope this makes sense ......

Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes · 03/04/2017 22:22

Mine are on top of my normal annual leave. I work a fixed number of hours a week (15) so I just work 1/5 fewer hours in any week when there's a bank holiday, i.e. 12 hours.

I normally work approx 5 hours on each of Mon/Tue/Wed, we are closed on bank holidays so on a bank holiday Monday week I generally work 12 hours over Tue/Wed/Thur. However you work it out you must end up with the same amount of holiday pro rata as full timers.

Original poster
Honey1975 · 03/04/2017 22:23

SkiBike I kind of get what you mean - I know I'm being thick but why would I book bank holiday off when no-one else has to?

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 03/04/2017 22:28

It will come out of full timers allowance too so as long as everything is pro rated properly you wouldn't be being penalised

bakingaddict · 03/04/2017 22:55

Because if you work long hours on a Monday or just a full day then your pro-rata entitlement is not going to cover this and you have to give the shortfall from your own annual leave entitlement. As a part-timer iit's always best to not work Mondays or at least keep your hours matched to your pro-rata entitlement

CharlieandLolaCat · 03/04/2017 22:57

So in the example I set out above, OP, I should have said that everyone who works full time is getting 33 days leave but 8 of them are being used for bank holidays. In your case, you're getting 16.5 days leave and only those that fall on days that you would otherwise work are taken as bank holidays. So you're all getting the same amount of leave, you're just using it in different in a different way.

You need to 'book' bank holidays in the way that you would a normal holiday because they need to be deducted from your total allowance.

GlowWine · 03/04/2017 23:08

How bank holidays are handled also depends on your contract / company. In my case, it was NOT in my best interest not to work on Mondays (as I did) as the BH just went 'in the bin' and were not added to my leave entitlement pro-rata. Our leave is given as "X days plus PBH" but the PBH are not included in the calculation, they're just a 'bonus' and it's your luck on which day they fall... Needless to say I came to my sense after a few years and do now work on Mondays. And enjoy my BHs more.

CharlieandLolaCat · 03/04/2017 23:18

GlowWine, legally you're entitled to at least 5.6 weeks annual leave statutory leave entitlement, potentially more depending on contract. What this effectively means from the sounds of it is that your employer was, and is, incorrectly calculating your holiday entitlement.

Buttercupsandaisies · 03/04/2017 23:29

As the others say, most part timers choose not to work Monday's as you defo lose out with the bank holidays. You are only entitled to pro rata BH so the rest have to be taken as leave. You'll actually be worsening as your longest day is Monday. So if you're going to a 0.5 contract you'll only be entitled to 4 bank holidays - which you'll get as hours on top of your leave. But you'll have to take the other 4 days (long days for you) out your leave.

Is seriously rethink having your long day as a Monday

TeacupDrama · 03/04/2017 23:30

Say your working day is 8.30_1 then 2_5 so a full week is 37.5 hours you work 21 hours as mornings longer than afternoons so you do 56% of ft, if your holiday allowance is legal minimum of 20 days plus 8 public holidays you get 56% of 28 days this is 118 hours, if the company closes all public holidays, when the holiday falls on a Monday they deduct 7.5 hours if it falls on Tues they deduct 4.5 and if a Friday 0 hours,

So you still have the same annual leave but because you work a full day on a Monday and at least 4 public holidays are Mondays ( plus any year when Christmas new year is a Monday or indeed Saturday or Sunday as the Monday is taken in lieu) you will have less free choice annual leave and more decided for you in advance,

Buttercupsandaisies · 03/04/2017 23:39

Eg. When I work 0.6 contract on tue- Wednesday, I get 0.6 worth of leave plus 0.6 worth of the bank holidays.

You're not entitled to full timers worth of BH obviously

This 0.6 of the BH worked out approx 5 bank holidays. Given I wasn't working Monday, I actually gained a few days (week usually) as I only had to book good Friday and poss New Year's Day.

Before then I did mon-wed and got the same entitlement. However I had to book all the bank holidays still only this time a much higher proportion fell on my working days - In effect I booked 6/7 (so this ate into my leave by 2-3 days which is a week)

Therefore for me, working Monday's costs me an extra week leave whereas not working Monday's gains me an extra week

So it's a 2 week leave difference!!! I'd never work Monday's again!

flowery · 04/04/2017 08:59

You wouldn't have to work any extra hours on the Tuesday (although you could if you and your employer agreed to this). But because the number of days bank holidays would fall on your longest working day, you wouldn't have enough bank holiday entitlement to cover all those days off, so would have to take some of it out of 'normal' annual leave.

You'd be much better off working a long day one of the other days, or having Mondays off rather than Fridays. You wouldn't get any more total paid holiday entitlement, but you'd be able to choose more of it, rather than having lots of it swallowed up by bank holidays you have to take off because the office is shut.

Tobuyornot99 · 04/04/2017 09:51

OP can I shamelessly ask a related question, as you have had some obviously really knowledgeable posters respond to you?
I'm about to ask to return p/t after mat leave and was planning to say I'd work whatever days suit the organisation. Working a Monday doesn't mean you actually lose out though does it? It means you may not have a choice about how to use some of your hours, but you still get the Monday off if that's your working day. Or am I being too simplistic?

Thanks in advance.

Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes · 04/04/2017 10:09

You do still get the Monday off but if you work say 20 hours when a fulltimer works 40 you would only be due a half day off so (assuming your company was shut for the day) you'd have to take the other half day from the rest of your leave allowance, or have an equivalent pay deduction, or make up the hours later in the week.

In my current job I normally work Mondays so I make up the hours later in the week. In my previous job it was all done by pay adjustment. Once a year part timers who worked Mondays had a deduction from pay and those who didn't work Mondays had an addition to theirs.

Mulledwine1 · 04/04/2017 10:26

I work part-time but I work the same hours every day, so I don't lose out because of BHs.

However, in a previous job I worked alternate long Mondays and did lose out as I only got 3.5 hours for a bank holiday even though I was working 6 hours. Even a short Monday was 4 hours, so I lost out every bank holiday. Some very good advice on here regarding not working long days on Mondays.

Buttercupsandaisies · 04/04/2017 16:26

Yes you do lose out like my example above. If you work part time, you're only allowed part time bank holidays. If you work 8-12pm five days a week that's fine as you'll get enough to cover part time hours on the Monday, but if you work 22 hours over 3 days that's different and will mean that a week if your leave will already be allocated for BH so you'll have no choice when to take it.

If you don't work Monday's at all, you are still entitled to bank holidays prorata, given most BH fall on Monday, you'll actually gain leave. I currently gain a weeks leave from bank holidays! Eg in entitled to 5 bank holidays but don't work Monday's so it works well!

flowery · 04/04/2017 17:33

You don't lose out in the amount of paid leave you actually get.

You do lose out in terms of what proportion of your total paid leave you get to choose when to take.

SkiBike007 · 04/04/2017 18:04

If you have children say one at school and one not have a look to see when they take most of their inset days. Our school is usually Monday so by not working Monday I don't have to find extra care but another local school normally takes Fridays as in set days. It's normally only 4 a year but it's another less hassle I have to work out as I don't work Mondays

SkiBike007 · 04/04/2017 18:08

In answer to "do I get penalised working Monday" it really depends on how flexible your employer and hours are. Both my kids are at school now 5day a week and I have flexi time so I can in theory swap days easily but when I had set days for childcare I didn't so not working mondays was more beneficial to me. Plus I really like now not having that "Monday feeling" on Sunday night, and can help DDs and DH prepare for the week with worrying about myself until Tuesday.