Bank holidays

[farine]

I work 32 hours over 4 days (Tuesday off) rather than 37.5 hours over 5 days, due to childcare responsibilities. This means I work 85% of WTE and so I get 85% of annual leave entitlement.

However I have now been told I also only get 85% of the total bank holidays. I have to take these bank holidays as the office is closed but I have to use my annual leave entitlement to make up the 15% gap in the bank holidays.

This feels inherently unfair to me, as I effectively end up with almost two days less annual leave.

HR advice was just to change my non working day that week eg to the bank holiday Monday and that would even things out. Maybe it would but I can’t do that due to childcare responsibilities on the Tuesday.

Can anyone advise on bank holidays and part time workers?

Sounds correct to me tbh. You just get less choice in which days you can take as holidays. As long as your total holidays are correct then they aren't doing anything wrong

"I effectively end up with almost two days less annual leave"

No you don't, you end up with exactly the same amount of annual leave in total , it's just a slightly higher proportion of yours has to be taken on specific days.

What solution would you propose instead? The options are either change your non working days as HR have suggested, or alternatively you could take unpaid leave on the days the office is closed so as to use more of your annual leave on days you choose.

Presumably you weren't going to suggest they give you extra paid leave so you get more than anyone else?

Sounds standard to me.

At my last company they closed for bank holidays and everyone who would have worked that day would have the day off, and those who didn’t work that day took a different day off. Guess I didn’t realise how fortunate I was

Still struggling to get my head around how I get 85% of what my leave entitlement would be but have to use that for bank holidays.

The only other things that grates is that although the working day is 7.5 hours I have to take 8 hours leave on a bank holiday as that’s what I would have worked. Guess that’s subject to same point as everyone’s made about the annual leave.

Out of interest is there an optimum working pattern I could do to maximise the leave I have? Eg would it work out better for me to do the 32 hours over 3 days rather than 4? Or over five days? Or do annualised hours?

If you are seriously worrying about 2 days a year then you probably need to find a new job...

I probably do! I’ve got less leave than in my old job so with this it’s actually a weeks less leave - which means a week more childcare to pay. Already on less take home pay (better pension though I need to stick around for 20 years for that to feel worth it).

Possibly focusing on this as unhappy with lots of other stuff.

As others have said it’s fine it’s not really unfair you get the same hold as everyone else it’s just that you have to take more on set days. The perils of the part timer who works on a Monday I was one myself for many years. At least you won’t need to use a holiday for Boxing Day this year and Christmas Day next year as they fall on Tuesdays.

”Still struggling to get my head around how I get 85% of what my leave entitlement would be but have to use that for bank holidays.”

Assuming your company operates the statutory mininum, that means full timers get a total of 28 paid days off a year. They have to take 8 of those days on public holidays because the office is closed. You work 85% of full time so you get 85% of that holiday entitlement. You have to take a slightly higher proportion of your leave on days the office is closed. That doesn’t mean you’re getting less leave.

”The only other things that grates is that although the working day is 7.5 hours I have to take 8 hours leave on a bank holiday as that’s what I would have worked.”

But you get paid for 8 hours, yes?

”Out of interest is there an optimum working pattern I could do to maximise the leave I have?”

The total leave entitlement you have isn’t going to change if you change your working pattern. It will still be 85%!

In my work our PH entitlement is rounded up to the nearest half day for part-time staff. Makes a slight difference for some people.

I was just trying to work out if my working days changed I could make that 85% go further at all.

I was wondering about the 8 hours v 7.5 because the bank holiday is 7.5 hours for everyone else but 8 for me as my working day is 8. I would have thought if the bank holiday was on the system as 7.5 hours, and I have to take that day off as can’t work it, I’d only have to take the 7.5 hours.

I will still have to use my leave for Boxing Day etc as over the course of the year I only get a proportion of the bank holidays given to me, and use my own leave entitlement to take the rest.

But Boxing Day this year is a Tuesday so you won’t need to take holiday as you’ll be off anyway.

It’s also right that you have to take the 8 hours on a Monday as that’s how long one of your days is and that’s what you’ll get paid for the bank holiday.

Many part timers find having a Monday off might give them more days holiday of their choosing as they don’t have to take the bank holiday Mondays off.

”I was just trying to work out if my working days changed I could make that 85% go further at all.”

85% is 85% however you work it.

I have to use some of my total leave entitlement to book bank holidays off.

My total leave is calculated in hours - it’s in two parts one of which is my annual leave part and the other is my bank holiday part, both of which are 85% of what a full time worker would get. I have to use time from that total allowance every time there is a bank holiday - even though I am only given 85% of the bank holidays in my allowance.

I have to take bank holidays off as the office is closed.

Whichever way you look at it you get the same number of days away from work with pay as everyone else. Your working day is 8 hours. Your working week is 32 hours. You get 32/37.5 x a full time person’s salary, holiday, etc.

The issue for you is that when a bank holiday falls on a Monday, you have to have Monday off as the office is closed. You then take your normal Tuesday day off.

Some years there will be a bank holiday on a Tuesday but not often.

If you want to maximise the number of days you can choose yourself then make Monday your day off.

You are being treated, pro rata the same as everyone else. However because here most bank hols fall on Mondays you have to either book a day’s holiday, take the day without pay or swap your day off. Your employer sounds totally fair.

Your working day is longer than the standard so you have to book that many hours’ holiday to get a bank holiday at your normal rate of pay.

Cannot see the issue here op.

Yes you’ve already said all that OP.

Flowery out of interest (as I know everything you've said is right)
How does less flexibility to specify time off fit with the requirement to treat part time staff no less favourably than full time staff?
Hope that makes some sort of sense!

Yes, it’s right. You only get the percentage of bank holidays. But 85% of the usual 8 hardly will affect you.

I have one part-time member of staff who works Mon/Tues/Wed, and a second who works Wed/Thurs/Fri. They both get 4.5 days of public holiday, but the first ends up having to use their own annual leave to cover a deficit, whereas the second doesn't use all theirs and gets it added to their annual leave. It's all because there are sooooooo many Monday bank holidays in the UK!! But it's legally correct as stated previously.

If you want to maximise the number of days you can choose yourself then make Monday your day off.

Absolutely this. I’m always a bit puzzled that most of the part timers I know have Friday off. Works out to about an extra week a year in leave if you don’t work the Monday.

I have always told my part time members of staff never to work Mondays for this reason. It can also catch you out on good Friday. Change your day or move on as they say. I think the other niggles you need to address as clearly they are concerning you.

"How does less flexibility to specify time off fit with the requirement to treat part time staff no less favourably than full time staff?"

Because the part time workers regs don't literally require employers to treat part timer exactly the same as full timers if this is not practicable, or if less favourable treatment can be objectively justified.

Giving part timers less paid time off would be less favourable treatment and an employer wouldn't be able to justify that. But the only way to make the situation in this thread exactly 100% completely fair would be for businesses to be forced to open their offices on all bank holidays so that part timers had the option to work then and take their annual leave another day. That would be a completely disproportionate requirement and the result would be no business would employ part timers at all because it would be too much of a headache.

So as long as part timers get the right proportion of paid leave, which the OP is, a technicality like some part timers ending up with a greater proportion of their leave being restricted is acceptable.

Years ago I worked 4 days a week (including Mondays) and wasn't hammered for bank holidays, I got all 8 plus pro-rated annual leave.

I work PT now but I work every day so the bank holiday thing doesn't affect me. But in a past role I worked 4 hours one Monday and 6 hours the next, so if a 6 hour day was a bank holiday I lost loads of leave as I only got an allowance of 3.5 hours for the bank holiday.

If I were in your shoes OP I would look at your childcare arrangements and see if you can swap your days round to not work Mondays.

I had a colleague in a previous job who worked a different day in the weeks where there was a Monday bank holiday so she didn't lose leave. Would that be an option?

Thank you flowery