Holiday entitlement

[Hudson123]

Is anyone able to clarify this for me please? My organisation give 28 days holiday per year for full-time hours (37.5 hpw). I do 30 hours per week over 5 days. My contract states I am entitled to 22.4 days per year (which is 80% of full-time hours). Is this correct (or fair)? I could understand a reduction in days if I didn't work every day but as I obviously only get paid for 30 hours per week is it right that I get a reduction in holiday entitlement? If I worked 30 hours over 4 days I would expect to get a reduction as one day of the week I wouldn't need to book leave for as it isn't a working day. I'd be really grateful if someone could explain this to me as we don't have an HR Department and it's confusing me. TIA

You work 80% of full-time hours, so it's correct that you are entitled to 80% of a full-timer's annual leave allowance. Most organisations calculate leave in hours though, so you would need to use fewer hours of your annual leave allowance than a full-timer would to take a day off work. If you don't have an HR Dept, check it with your line manager.

Yes - the calculation is correct.

If 37.5 hours a week = 28 days holiday a year.

28 / 37.5 = 0.747 days

0.747 days x your 30 hours = 22.41 days holiday.

Yes that’s correct. You are working 80% of a full time working week, you are receiving 80% of full time holiday allowance. Therefore you are receiving the exact same holiday allowance as those full time. Whether you do 5 shorter days, 3 long days etc you are essentially part time and are getting pro-rata holidays. Why would it be fair for you to get the same holiday as those working more hours.

When I worked 27.5 hours over 5 days, I was still entitled to the same 25 days as the full time people, as I still needed 5 days to book off a week
I now do the same hours over 4 days and get 19.5 (some adjustment for bank holidays stopped it being 20)
I would definitely ask for it to be worked out in hours, so you will get less hours than full time people but need less to book off the week

I agree it should be worked out in hours. If you take one day of holiday you're having 6 hours off, if a full time employee takes one day holiday they're getting 7.5 hours off. So you're entitled to 22.41 'full' days (I.e.7.5 hours) of holiday or 30 'reduced' days

Definitely needs to be worked out in hours. What they've told you makes no sense.

You are working 5 days a week with each day being 0.8x the length of a standard office day.

It is fine for them to calculate your leave pro-rata like this so long as when you take a day of leave it is also counted pro-rata as 0.8 of a day, and when you take a week it is counted as 0.8 of a week.

Most sensible companies reckon the annual leave of part time workers in hours to avoid this kind of confusion.

Do you work the same amount of hours each day? If so you should get 28 days holiday but each holiday day would be 6 hours rather than 8 hours or whatever full timers work. Alternatively they should calculate it in hours instead - 168 hours for a 30 hour week

If you don't work the same number of hours each day your holiday entitlement should be expressed in hours, not days. However, if you work 6 hours per day dementedpixie is right - you are still entitled to 28 days. It can only be 22.4 days if taking a day off only takes 0.8 of a day off your holiday entitlement, as UhareFouxisci suggests. But I doubt that is how they would work.

It sounds like your employer is confused and may be in breach of the Working Time Directive.

When I worked for Local Government, anyone who wasn't working full time received their holiday entitlement in hours.

The only way your holiday entitlement will be fair is if you compress your current hours into a 4 day week. Then the days allocated for annual leave work out. As it stands you are missing out on 20% holiday entitlement!

If you work the same number of hours/day each week, then you should receive exactly the same number of days off as a full time worker, it's just that your days are fewer hours.

If you work different hours on different days, they should calculate it on an hours basis.

It is only fair to pro-rate your days as you have stated, is if, when you book a day off, they deduct 80% of a days leave.

No that isn’t fair or right. They really should calculate your entitlement in hours.

” My contract states I am entitled to 22.4 days per year (which is 80% of full-time hours). Is this correct (or fair)?”

Absolutely not correct or fair, no. Assuming you work 6 hours a day, you are already getting less paid holiday than a full timer because you get 6 paid hours off per holiday day, whereas they get 7.5 hours (or whatever).

You should get exactly the same number of days holiday as a full timer. Because 28 days off for you is 80% of full time entitlement!

If you work different hours each day, then your holiday entitlement should be calculated in hours instead to make sure you get the correct amount.

Please don’t listen to all the people on this thread saying you should have fewer days than everyone else!

The legal wording when it comes to paid holiday is in weeks- everyone is entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday, so however many days/hours they work each week multiplied by 5.6.

22.4 days isn’t 5.6 weeks if you work 5 days a week.

Ours is worked in hours. So if you are working 5 hrs a day and a full time person 7, the you end up with the same number of days holiday but fewer hours holidays,

Interesting as I've got a similar issue at work (& have realised I lost some holiday days last year as I wasn't aware I had them to take).