Reduction of working hours and Holiday pay

[Cachorro]

Dear Moms and Dads,

I have received an email from my employer informing me with their decision of reducing my working days from 5 to 4 per week. Clearly not happy with this change in light of the current economic climate, I cannot just afford making a switch so quickly in to a new role and perhaps given the benefit of the doubt they did say its a temporary measure for 2 months only. It’s disappointing as i had only joined the company 6 months ago, backed with ambition and hope. I sincerely appreciate some advice that will help me understand if i am being short changed.

1. If I agree to their terms of reduced work, will the email agreement in legal terms will supersede my contractual work agreement? They have not mentioned anything about revising my original contract.
2. Are the calculations applied for the salary reductions correct from £3293 to £2634.67 gross which is from 5 to 4 days. Are the average monthly working days 21.6 based on the following calculation 5 x 52wks /12=21.6 days.
3. My contract stipulates the following with respect to holidays

ANNUAL LEAVE AND PUBLIC/BANK HOLIDAYS
Your holiday year begins on 1st January and ends on 31st December each year, during which you will receive a paid holiday entitlement of 28 days - exclusive of public/bank holidays. Entitlements are pro-rata for part-time employees. In your first holiday year your entitlement will be proportionate to the amount of time left in the holiday year.
In addition to the annual holiday entitlement, you are allowed the following public/bank holidays each year with pay
New Year's Day
Good Friday
Easter Monday
The first Monday in May
The last Monday in May The last Monday in August Christmas Day
Boxing Day

When I asked for clarification, this is the reply. I don’t understand why they are deducting bank holidays from my accumulated holidays to date? Are they correct in doing so.

• How will this reduction impact my holiday entitlement?

Your holiday entitlement will be pro rata - you have accrued 8 days to this point and a further 4 for November and
December giving a total of 12 days entitlement (to include bank holidays)

• Can you confirm my accumulated holidays from my start date as no time has been taken off? As per contract my understanding is that holiday entitlement cannot be rolled over.

You have accrued 8 days to this point and a further 4 for November and December giving a total of 12 days entitlement (to include bank holidays). You have taken a total of 2 do far - bank holidays, a further x 2 bank holidays to take at Christmas which leaves 8 to take. I am happy to discuss a mutually convenient time for you to take these with two weeks notice. Generally Christmas would be out, however 22nd/23rd will be fine to take should you wish to take these.

Thank youuuuuu so much for your input.

Contact ACAS, Op, for free advice and guidance.

Sounds like they’re initiating a consultation period with you to change your T&C’s, difficult as you’ve been there a very short period so they may be thinking you’re ‘low risk’. Is it just you who’s being changed? As PP said, id give ACAS a call and just double check where you stand and then I’d write a formal response to your employer explaining the impacts this will have on you financially, how you want to progress your career blablabla and then they’ll have to take this into consideration when making any changes.

Sounds all above board to me but contact ACAS for formal confirmation.

The contract reads like it should be 28 days + 8 days bank holidays as it says the 28 days is exclusive of them. Does this not mean that you are entitled to the 12 days plus the pro rata bank holidays?

When do they want the 4 day week to start?

Thank youuuuu all for your advice, good point to call ACAS to get a better understanding.
@dementedpixie That’s what the contract says 28 days exclusive of public and bank holidays, maybe because other than a Salary (that I work for lol) there isn’t any other employee benefits provided with this job- no pension incentives- nothing.

@Q3478910 There is no mention of consultation period initiation in their emails.
when calculating the holidays accumulated on GOV site it turns out to date I have statutory entitlement of 112 hours = 14days, I checked on another site also which confirmed the same.
My contract says 40 hours per week with 30 minutes paid break each day. Does that mean in my calculations I should put 37.5 hours per week or is it 40 hours to determine by accumulative holidays?

Are the calculations applied for the salary reductions correct from £3293 to £2634.67 gross which is from 5 to 4 days. With no other info that appears to be correct.

Are the average monthly working days 21.6 based on the following calculation 5 x 52wks /12=21.6 days. It depends on your employer, I use 5 x52.2 = 261/12 = 21.75. Not sure why you need this calculation.

Holiday entitlement

You get 28 days + BH 8 normally but 10 in 2022 so your gross or total leave allowance is 36 (38) days. Your employer then specifies days when you must take leave, the BH, so deducts 8(10) days to leave you with 28 net days leave.

I’m not sure what date you started so can’t calculate your leave entitlement. They also need to calculate in hours as it’s a change part way through the year.

Full time for Nov & Dec I would calculate as 38 days (2022 only) /365 x 61 = 6.35 days less 2 days for Christmas BH = 4.35 days and to entitlement and then round up to nearest 1/2 day.

Part time I would calculate as 38 days (2022 only) x 8 hours = 304 hours /40 x 32 = 243.2 hours 365 x 61 = 40.64 hours less 16 hours (2 x Christmas BH if the fall on your working days) = 24.64 hours. I think their calculation may not be correct as it is definitely more than 4 days including BH.

As pp have said speak to ACAS.

Are you being made redundant from the 5th day and receiving compensation?

@Princessglittery you are a star providing me with a breakdown, calculations not being my strongest, so much appreciation.

my start date was 18/07/2022, company leave year starts from 01/01/2022 so correct me with my calculation, i checked out on . Gov portal and it works out to be 14 days accrued based on 40 hours. My contract says work hours per week 40 with 30 minutes paid break.
Should i be calculating at 40 or at 37.5?

@Cachorro You should be using 40 hours.

This is how I would calculate it for you - slightly different to the above as on reflection your contract gives you BH on top.

18/07/2022 to 31/10/2022 = 106 days
28 days leave x 8 hours /365 x 106 = 65.05 hours leave
BH in this period = 2 (August BH and Queens Funeral) x 8 hours = 16 hours
= 81.05 hours leave

01/11/2022 to 31/12/2022 = 61 days
28 days leave x 8 hours /365x 61 = 37.43 hours for full time /40x32 = 29.95
BH in this period = 2 x 8 /40 x32 = 12 hours
= 41.95 hours

= 123 hours gross leave
Less BH falling on working days 4 x 8 = 32
Net leave = 91 hours If you divide by 8 = 11.37 days in addition to the 2 Christmas BH which are accounted for earlier in the calculation.
Note: I think gov.uk says to round to nearest 1/2 day so 11.37 becomes 11.5 + 2 BH = 13.5 days in total.

If you did full time 18/07/2022 to 31/12/2022
28/365x166 = 12.73 days plus 4 BH (round up to 13 + 4 BH)

Sorry for changing the methodology but this is absolutely fair as I have only added in BH falling in the period rather than assuming 10 BH for the year.

@Cachorro If they do insist or you agree to dropping a day consider if it would be better to drop a Monday. Most BH fall on a Monday and this can eat into your net leave I.e. the bit you take when you want, not working Monday’s means you get the BH hours to take when you want.

OP is not being made redundant. The company cannot actually legally reduce days worked unilaterally. But what they can do and I presume what they are doing is saying that she needs to agree to the reduced days or they will terminate. This they can do for any reason with no redundancy pay required as she hasn’t been there long enough.

as the compnay name the 8 nbank holidays in her contract they do not have to give the day for Queen's funeral is they said all public holidays then they would but as they specifically name which days they do give as BH then thye don't have to give an extra one

Just an update to my dear helpers, advisors, power puffs! @Princessglittery you are a life saver with your meticulous breakdown.

I received a reply email to my asking the person responsible for some clarity on their workings for the holiday entitlement, which was ‘I will let you know next week (when the 4 days work change actually kicks in according to them, even though I have not agreed to anything yet) further the email said, if you know your holiday entitlement then why ask me’.
I am so shocked at this reply, when they initiated this mess by first cutting my days from 5 to 4, and sending me calculations that with help i figured out they are incorrect. Unbelievable!

@ManefesationofConciousness According to them its a two month ( Nov & Dec) temporary reduction from a full time job to 4 days, which will be again discussed mid December if it is to continue for January and February.
Furthermore, at no point during these email exchanges has the employer mentioned or indicated making any contract variations. Is it normal not to have contracts changes when this is only for two months? @Aprilx yes, you are right termination of contract will be next, if I disagree to taking the reduced days/ business flexibility clause i signed yikes!

@Cottagecheeseisnotcheese They did not list in the Clause the Queens funeral bank holiday, purely because this unforeseen event happened after I had signed and joined the company.

@Princessglittery great point you made about Monday. Thank youuuu 👯

@Cachorro thanks for the update, so glad I could help. So sorry they are clearly not following good practice.

Have a chat with ACAS about the contract change. In my view they should at least set out in writing that it is a temporary reduction. However as pp have said they need to consult and follow a lawful process which ACAS can advise.

Yes but because they specify the BH included means there is no legal obligation to give it as a BH this was discussed in other threads. the exact wording of contract dictates whether extra BH for jubilee funeral and the coronation next year are included. . If a contract says all UK BH then they are included, if it says 8 it means 8 the fact that the days they count as BH are listed means that legally your contract is not obliged to add the extra days to your allowance,
Your holiday allowance is already considerably more than minimum