Part time holiday allowance

[OrangeSunset]

This is something that just doesn’t compute in my head, I’m hoping someone can help me out.

I work 0.6FTE.

I was doing Mon\Tue\Thurs.

Have switched to Tues\Weds\Thurs during homeschool.

With bank holidays, it it more favourable to me to stay with current pattern or revert to working a Mondays?

Are the allowances the same regardless of the pattern?

I don’t think my allowance is right in the HR system either so need to double check it but need to understand the logic to do so.

Thank you.

It depends on how your work allocates bank holidays as part of your holiday allowance. At my work, me (0.8fte, didn’t work on a Monday) and my colleague (0.8fte, didn’t work Fridays) compared leave and I got about half a day extra a year most years, depending on when Christmas fell. It’s a crazy calculation though.

Don't you just get 0.6 of the total holiday allowance?

If you need to book leave to cover bank holidays (I do) you are technically better off leave wise not working Mondays.

You get the same amount irrespective of work pattern. However as most bank holidays fall on a Monday, you would have more flexibility on when to use the leave if you stayed wed-fri.

I work Tuesday-Friday and get 0.8fte for both annual leave and bank holiday allowance. Any
Mondays that are bank holidays I don’t have to book off so get that leave back.
Most bank holidays are Monday (or Friday) excluding Christmas/New Year.

If your workplace calculates leave in such a way that you get a different amount of leave depending on what days you work, then they are doing it wrong. You are not supposed to be disadvantaged due to being part time.

However, if you work Mondays you are likely to end up with fewer hours leave that you can take when you want to take them in comparison to a colleague who works part time but not on Mondays.

If you go onto the government holiday calculator it gives you a proportion of a FT allowance for the year including bank holidays.

Think of it as if your working day is on a bank holiday the office is closed and you have to take that day as part of your allowance. If no bank holidays fall on your working days you don't.

The number of days off remains the same. Just you choose some and don't choose others

Your company should make it fair though not all do. Mine is fair. I get (25 ( standard leave days for my role) + 8 (bank holidays) ) x 0.6 (proportion of week worked).
So in your case 33 x 0.6 = 19.8, so rounds up to 20.
Then I have to book bank holidays off if I want them (love this as it gives more flexibility).

What leave would you get if you were full time and what leave are you getting?

I'm 0.6 and I get 0.6 x 8 public holidays which is 4.8. However I work Mondays and basically with Xmas new yr hols I have to use some of my normal holidays to make up the bank holidays if that makes sense.

So if there are 6 bank holidays that fall on my working days I need to use 1.2 from my normal holiday allowance to make it up.

If I didn't work Mondays and no other holidays fell on my working days I wld get an extra 4.8 days leave.

I think for most people it would be more favourable not to work Mondays. I only do as I have family childcare that day.

I can't do the formulas but I do remember having to book annual leave for Mondays when I did a mon - weds pattern. I was most cross.

@Gizlotsmum

If you need to book leave to cover bank holidays (I do) you are technically better off leave wise not working Mondays.

This

If you get BH leave pro rata, you’ll get something like 5 days to take in lieu of Bank Holidays. At least 4 BH always fall on a Monday. If you don’t work Mondays, then you don’t have to use your pro rata days to cover them. If any other BH happen to be a Monday that year, you’re well up. If Christmas and New year are Mondays - nearly all your pro rata days will be “yours”, especially if you also don’t work Fridays (Good Friday).

It also will depend on what part of the UK you are in as to how much difference it will make. I'm in N Ireland and we have more bank holidays that don't necessarily fall on a Monday than England does.

My leave is calculated like this:

I get an allowance of 25/37.5 of the full time allowance for annual leave. And the same for bank/public holidays when the business is closed. Then the two are added together and the hours needed to cover all the bank holidays are taken out of that and the remaining amount is the flexible leave that I can book. It means that some years, depending on what days certain holidays fall on, I have more leave to book or less leave to book. But I always have the same overall hours of paid leave. And it is always directly in proportion to my full time colleagues.

It should not make any difference at all, if it does, it is being calculated incorrectly.

There is an advantage to the Tues, Wed, Thurs work pattern if your office is normally closed on bank holidays. The advantage is that you have more flexibility to choose when to take your holidays, whereas if Monday is a regular work day, the employer will mandate that bank holiday Mondays are leave days.

I used to manage a job share and the woman who worked Weds-Fri did much better out of the holiday allowance than the woman who worked Mon-Weds, the former never had to work Mondays and then got the BH allowance added to her holiday allowance so she could book them off on her days, it was quite annoying as it was quite disruptive to our service as we were closed BH so having additional leave that had to be taken during opening hours was a pain in the bum!

If you don't work Mondays you get more choice on when to take your leave as you don't have to use a 0.6 day to cover a bank holiday.

Ok so we have an allowance based on days so I have 26 + 8 * 0.6.

I think this has answered my question though. Basically if I worked Mondays I’d ‘lose’ 4 (or however many Monday BH there are) of the resulting allowances to bank holidays (office/business is closed) whereas if you don’t work Mondays, I can take those days when I want?

It’s almost a moot point, as I generally take weeks rather than individual days for school holidays etc but I guess I’ll end up a little better off.

Thanks all. I am still ashamed to say I never quite get this all. It’s just one of those things that won’t stick in my head!