Part time work and bank holidays

[dirzte]

I am starting a new job soon working 4 days a week, and I can choose which day I take off each week. It is clear in my contract that the annual leave will be 4/5ths entitlement, but I wondered what I should do about the bank holidays? The contract just says they are paid leave. It is a really small company, and it would be good to have a clear idea of what to do before I start.

Does anyone know if I should take each bank holiday as my 1 day a week off, or doing something else as it is paid leave and therefore not a working day? What would have happened this year for Christmas day and Boxing Day where there are 2 BH days in the week? Thanks!

I work part time and I have to prorate the bank holidays. So in your situation, I would only be entitled to four fifths of the bank holidays. As I work Mondays I would end up taking more bank holidays than my entitlement, so I have to use some annual leave to cover them.

No one here can tell you that. As long as you get the right amount of paid leave, how/when you take it is between you and your employer.

You should have been given a total paid leave entitlement of 4/5 that of full timers, including bank holidays. Whether you use up one of your paid leave days to take a bank holiday off as well as your ‘normal’ day off, or whether you save your paid leave and work four days in a bank holiday week will be between you and your manager/whatever arrangement there is for holiday approval.

What wording is there in your contract about holiday?

Bank holidays should be pro rata like your annual leave. What is the full time entitlement for each? If you dont have Monday as a working day (e.g work Tues-Friday) then you have more choice as when to take your holidays whereas if Monday is a working day you would need to use some of your holiday entitlement to take the bank holiday leaving less choice for other holiday days.

In all my part time jobs the arrangement has been: you get the bank holiday pro rata.

So for you, you get 4/5ths of the 8 bank holidays each year added into your leave.

I think you need to talk to your employer to ask what they want you to do in weeks with bank holidays, do they want you to take that bh off as your non working day? (in which case you would then have a credit of 4/5ths leave to use on another occasion) Or do they want you to be on paid leave like everyone else? (in which case you get 4/5ths bank hol off and have to spend 1/5th from your annual leave to make up the full day). This also works for weeks with two bank hols.

I think it is more likely in the case of a small company that they will want you to do the latter but best to find out if there is a precedent before you make any plans.

I'd work Tursday to Friday.

No brainer really imho.

You'll still get 4/5 of 28 days leave (or more if the allowance is more generous)

Thanks Hotpenguin, I think it would be clearer if I was doing set days, but I'm just not sure whether I should be taking the bank holiday day as my day off/working out leave entitlement.

Flowery - I will double check with my employer, but as I said it is very small and I think I'm the first person to do a non-standard week. From your post, I should be adding the bank holiday days to my annual leave allowance and then pro-rating it. So if I use a bank holiday as my day off, I still have that extra day as a holiday?

Without copying the contract (I'm a bit paranoid!) it basically says -

Basic paid leave: "If you work full time you have 25 days paid leave...if you are a part time employee your basic holiday entitlement is pro-rated and rounded up to the nearest half day"

Paid time off for BH: "full time employee...free to take basic holiday entitlement as well as any normal public holidays"

So do full time staff get 25 days plus 8 bank holidays? (statutory minimum holidays are 28 days which may or may not include bank holidays)

I work 4 days a week, Tue-Fri.
I get 4/5 annual leave
I also get 4/5 bank holidays added to my leave allowance
I must then take a day of leave when a BH falls on my working day.
Since bank hols are mostly on Mondays, this usually works in my favour. ie: there are usually 8 bank hols, 4 on Mondays, 4 possibly not on Mondays. It get 6.4 days additional leave prorated for BHs but sometimes only need to take 4 days of it.

”From your post, I should be adding the bank holiday days to my annual leave allowance and then pro-rating it.”

They should be doing that, yes. If full timers get the basic statutory minimum leave of 28 days inclusive of bank holidays you should get 4/5 of that which is 22.4 days, rounded up to 22.5.

Any bank holidays you take off should come out of that total.

So if full time staff get 33 days, you working 4/5 days would be entitled to 26.4 days, rounded up to 26.5.

When I was PT, I had BH in a pro rata basis. If a BH fell on my free day I’d have to owe the job annual leave hours ( worked out about 2 hrs) If it fell on a working day the job would owe me annual leave hours

Yes it generally all just gets added together, then if you're meant to work on a BH, you have to take it off and take if out of your leave entitlement. As many BHs fall on Mondays, if you don't normally work a Monday it gives you more flexibility to take your days off on days you actually want rather than having to take off the bank holidays.

Sorry yes just seen it’s more than statutory minimum but you get how it works.

I work 4 days a week, Tue-Fri.
I get 4/5 annual leave
I also get 4/5 bank holidays added to my leave allowance
I must then take a day of leave when a BH falls on my working day.

This was the arrangement I had when I worked PT. I would sometimes swap my non-working day around so I didn't have to use annual leave but this would always be agreed in writing in advance with my Head of Dept.

Thanks everyone, I wasn't expecting so many replies, it is all really helpful.
Flowery, I know I should leave it up to HR, but I think that's one person atm and it is great to understand it before I start. I will double check with them before taking any days off.

Thanks dementedpixie, so I'll have a total of 26.5 days holiday, and I think from reading everyone's replies it makes more sense to have the BH days off as my weekly day off (it doesn't matter to the company which day I take) and then use the holiday days on other days off.