Can someone explain bank holidays when you work part time?

[user6767]

I have heard this quite often so I know it's not just my employer. Basically I work part time so my holidays and bank holidays are all pro rata. Holidays fine all makes sense bank holidays I am given 4 or 5 depending on the year, however, because I work every Monday this eats into my holiday allowance. I have had to book off 7 bank holidays this year 3 more than I have been given entitlement for. Them 3 extra days is actually a full weeks holiday for me.

I don't see how this is fair but it seems to be normal from others I have spoken to about it. I have queried it with my HR who just said it's correct. I don't understand could someone explain the reasoning since it seems to be the norm everywhere.

One of my colleagues only works Wednesday to Friday and still gets the 4/5 days entitlement so actually ends up with extra holidays. I think I need to ask to change my days.

It’s pro rata isn’t it ? It’s 28 days a year minimum including bank holidays so no matter how many hours you work it’s pro rata .
If your contact it is say 25 days + bank holidays then it’s the same for part time but pro rata .
If they give you 25 days pro rata plus 4 days for bank holidays it’s still more than entitlement then it’s perfectly ok you may seem it’s unfair to you.
www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

If you can, I would definitely change your days to not work Mondays.

So... let's assume you work 0.5, 2.5 days a week. There are 8 bank holidays in a year (usually). That would equate to 4 days pro rata.

If you work Mon, half day Wed, and Fri (for example) then you need to cover any bank hols that fall on those days, out of your leave. There will always be at least 4 Mondays and 1 Friday - so 5 days' leave used up on Easter (2 days), in May (2 days) and August (1 day). If Christmas/Boxing/NY Day fall on a Mon/Wed/Fri, you also need to cover those.

If you work Tue, Wed and half day Thur, then if Christmas/Boxing/NY Day fall on a Tue/Wed/Thu you would need to cover them - but the other days will (in a normal year) already fall on your non-working days. So you'd actually get at least an extra day's leave.

If I went part-time, I would definitely choose Monday as my non-working day - no-brainer.

I used to do 10 hours on a Monday and had this problem. I just asked to work another day in the week when it was the bank holiday, as even if worked the bank holiday, the workplace wasn't open long enough so I would still lose hours.

Pro rota bank holidays and working Monday does have it disadvantages!

You should have the same amount of holiday, you just get less choice as to when they are taken.

Yes the only way round this is changing your days. It's well known that people who work part time including Mondays get a bit of a raw deal when it comes to bank holidays.

If you work 4 days out of 5 then you get 4/5ths of the total bank holidays for the year. More often than not more than 4/5ths of the bank holidays fall on a Monday.

Sorry :(

If you change your day you don't get more leave than everyone else. That extra week (3 days) are just days that other people have taken on the bank holiday. Just you would get more flexibility on when to book hours instead of having to take the bank holiday date

I worked 4 days per week, Mondays are my non working day.

I still get the same amount of bank holidays as everyone else, if the bank holiday falls on my non working day I have to take my 'bank holiday' on the Tuesday

Mondays are the worst day for a part timer to work given the number of bank holidays that fall on a Monday.

If given the choice don't choose Monday as one your part time days

[quote user6767]@Oldtimer2020 I just can't make sense of it but a few other people I know all say they have the same situation as me. We all used to have to book our banks holidays off as holidays but where given an entitlement for it in our holidays. They no longer do this with full time staff just give them the day off but part time still have to book it off.
My employers are a good company with a good reputation so I don't feel like they would have this policy if it was wrong. I just can't get my head around the reason.[/quote]
You should get the same number of holidays but will have less choice as to when you can take your holidays as you need to use allowance for the bank holiday.

E.g. if you work 3 days a week (Inc mondays) then you get ⅗ of the 20 days holidays (12) plus ⅗ of the 8 bank holidays (4.8) = 16.8 days Unfortunately you then need to use holidays to cover any bank holiday Mondays so you deduct them from 16.8 to give you your remaining entitlement

If you work Tuesday- Thursday then you still get 16.8 days holiday but have more choice as to when to take those days as fewer, if any, will be bank holidays.

I'd change your working days or offer to work a different day in a bank holiday week to preserve some of the days

@CurryLover55

This post has made me think. I work 16 hours a week over 4 days & one of my days off is a Monday but I don’t believe I get the Bank Holiday back as annual leave. Perhaps I need to look into this!

You should get a minimum of 5.6 weeks of holiday so 4 × 5.6 = 22.4 days (where your day is 4 hours long). Or they may do it in hours so 16 x 5.6 = 89.6 hours. Each day you get deducts 4 hours

When I worked Monday- Thursday I simply worked Friday if I had run out of bh allowance

I always love these threads.

It is fair. I am part time and this calculation has always been used for me although it took me a while to get my head around it ! Another way to look at it is during a b/h week you colleague works Wed- Fri so her normal 3 day week. You work Tues/Wed ( because Mon is b/h) so you only work 2 days. Therefore the Monday needs to be accounted for. You can take it from your annual leave ( which your bank holiday pro rata entitlement should be added to) or if their is any flexibility in your organization you can opt to work on Thu or Fri to account for your b/h day.
It can be unfortunate if Monday is your working day as it's inevitable you have to use leave entitlement once your pro rata b/h entitlement has been used up. You colleague is working her full 3 days as she normally would so gets to take her b/h allowance at another time hence why it seems she gets more than you but really she doesn't.

Yep, completely standard everywhere I have worked. Does seem unfair but then from a FT pov, as a PT you have more flexibility to switch days around which they don't, so have to book holiday instead. I've been the envious FT and since having my DS, am now the PT and made damn sure I didn't work Mondays. I would see if it's possible to switch your working days OP x

When I worked part time, I worked 24 hours per week.
A bank holiday counted as 5 hours (Ok, that's not exact, because 5 days at 5 hours works out as 25 hours, obviously).
So, I usually worked 4 days of 6 hours, but when there was a bank holiday, had to add an extra hour somewhere.
It's not necessarily exact, but my hours were flexible, and this seemed the fairest way.
So if I worked Mon to Thursday of 6 hours, and that week had a Bank holiday Monday, then I had to add an extra hour.
However, if the bank holiday was a Friday (as in 2020, or Good Friday), which I probably did not work anyway, then I could take 5 hours out of the rest of my working week.
Some weeks, I worked 3 days of 8 hours, so this way of calculating the Bank Holiday seemed the best way

I work part time and Bank holidays are included in my annual leave, I still need to book them off though. As I normally take the Friday off occasionally I will simply take the Bank hoilday as my day off and save my annual leave. Not happy that they are included in my annual leave, but it is what it is I guess.

Helpful to see all the explanations! Whilst doing pro rata for bank holidays stops the unfairness of 2 part time people who happen to work different days, it still discriminates part time workers in general as full time workers get the day off for free. So in effect if you are working part time, you are being paid less for each day you work in the year than a full time worker as your salary is already pro rata-ed. I find it a bit annoying!

Full timers don't get it off for free

Using the legal minimum of 5.6 weeks leave entitlement. Think of it that each working day is worth 1.12 weeks worth of leave. The more you work, the more you are entitled to. Full timers aren't getting it for free, they're working the extra to "earn" it.

Each working day in a week, not just each working day.