Bank holiday for part time staff

[FallenFigs]

I’m sure this has been asked several thousand times, but I have a bank holiday query.

I work 0.7FTE so have been given 0.7Fte of bank holidays. I agree with the logic, but…

I work Mondays, so this year that means my 0.7 of bank holidays doesn’t cover me for all bank holidays. It leaves me 1.5 days short.

HR suggest I either move my working day permanently to avoid Mondays, or work additional days to make up the shortfall. Ie in a Bank holiday week, work a Friday instead.

This seems particularly unfair compared to a) full time employees and b) part time employees who don’t work Mondays.

In previous companies, if the business was closed on a Monday (which this is) then everyone who would work that day had the bank holiday paid regardless of FT/PT.

they have said working on the Bank holiday is not an option. Also seems unfair.

Any suggestions? Or is this legally correct and I have to suck it up?

Part time employees who don't work a Monday have more choice as to when to take their holidays but would still get the same number of days as employees who work Mondays.

It is both legal and fair

Hi, unfortunately what they are advising is correct, some years you will benefit as Christmas etc will fall midweek/on your non working days and you may get a pro rata up on your banks, years this one you don't get the benefit sorry.

HR are correct. Your leave should be in hours to include bh . Then you redeem the day as you take it. So either lose the hours or offset it by working another day that week.

Don't they work everything out in hours for you if part time? If a normal day is 8 hours then you only work 5.6 hours. So to take a bank holiday off you don't take 8 hours off - you only take 5.6.

So if the FTE of bank holidays is 10 days at 8 hours that would be 80 hours FTE and 56 hours for part time.

So if you are taking 5.6 hours for each bank holiday then you can still take all 10 bank holidays from that allowance.

At my company I have the option to book annual leave to cover the rest of the hours or make the hours up later in the week. Seems fair enough to me. If I didn't work Mondays I'd expect some TOIL so seems reasonable for it to work the other way.

I assume 0.7 means not in every day rather than 0.7 of each day (as then you get bank holidays off sane as anyone else)

I do 1 day a week. I would earn 20% of each bank holiday to add to my normal pro rata holiday allowance but if I wanted to not work that day it would use up a whole days holiday. (In practice I just work another day)

I see - so normal Monday could be 8 hours so need to take 8 hours from the bank holiday hours for each Monday. Then if allocation is only 56 hours that means you would only get paid for 7 out of the total of 10 and the other 3 (if all on a working day) would have to be from holiday?

I think I would change my working days if possible?

This happened to me I used to work Mon/Tue/Wed and my colleague Tue/Wed/Thurs

Come bank holidays - she was fine, but I'd have to swap my day that week from a Monday to a Thursday to save my holiday. Technically I don't get a day off that week (but then nor did she) but unfortunately that is how it is.

Yeah it's annoying. I had to take off bank holidays out of my leave

Allowing you to change your working days so that you don't need to use leave for the bank holiday is more than fair - full timers don't get that option.

If you were given it as a 'free' day off then that would be unfair on the full timers too because you're getting extra time off as a proportion of your contracted hours than they are.

This

Your leave should be quoted in hours. You then take the number of hours leave that equates to your normal working day.

This interpretation is correct and OP it’s absolutely legal and fair. It is great your employer will allow you to switch days to mitigate this and if you have young children, it is the best way forward not to work Mondays. In most cases, you are disproportionately charged more for nursery days not attended due to BH too (or at least that is the case near me)

Yes, my leave is given in hours.

The issue I can’t get straight in my head is this:

I have always thought of the BH allowance as separate to the ‘normal’ holiday allowance.

so for example, 25 days plus 8 days for bank holidays.

in my case, 25 days pro rated means effectively I can take 5 weeks off as I take leave or 3.5 days, plus 1.5 non working days. If I were full time, I would be taking 5 days. We both get the same time off work - 5 weeks. And this is at our choice in terms of when to book (generally speaking).

But, if I have to ‘dip in’ to my bank holiday allowance to cover bank holidays I effectively lose 1.5 days of ‘choice’ time. This doesn’t happen to full time employees, or those who don’t work Mondays. So that leaves me with less than 5 weeks to book through choice.

and conversely, it’s really advantageous to not work a Monday, as I would then have 5.6 days ‘extra’ leave for BH. This year, I’d only need to use 3 of those for bank holidays that fell on a working day.

Am I missing missing something? It totally seems unfair on those are PT and who work Mondays.

It is slightly ‘less bad’ next year, in that fewer bank holidays are on a Monday, but an allowance of 0.7 wouldn’t cover them all.

I’ve never been in this situation before - as I say whomever worked BH got them paid.

You only get a pro rata amount of bank holidays too which is why if most of the bank holidays fall on your working days then you will need to make up the shortfall from your annual leave hours.

You still get the same amount of holidays as someone not working a Monday so it would be unfair to give you extra holidays just because you work on a Monday. Either change your working day or swap your day on some weeks that have a bank holiday.

So if a full timer gets 25 + 8 then you get 0.7 of 25 and 0.7 of 8. It would be unfair on the other staff to give you all the bank holidays paid as then you would get proportionately more holidays than them

Yes, as most above have said. I work Mon-Thurs. So I get 0.825 annual leave days, and 0.88 (or 9 this year) bank holidays. So to cover the shortfall in bank holiday leave, I have to take from my annual leave. It's totally fair. Okay, you kind of have to take the bank holidays, but otherwise you'd end up getting all the bank holidays plus 0.8*25 days, which would put you at an advantage.
That said, until I went part time HR turned a blind eye, so people who didn't work Mondays and didn't ask for extra time off got screwed, and people who took Weds off (people from HR, not surprisingly) got all their leave and all the bank holidays. Anyway, I wanted it to be done properly so they've made it so. And have had to pay back "Mondays" to certain people.

the editing has unkindly made a part of my message bold, instead of using the * sign twice

But, if I have to ‘dip in’ to my bank holiday allowance to cover bank holidays I effectively lose 1.5 days of ‘choice’ time. This doesn’t happen to full time employees, or those who don’t work Mondays. So that leaves me with less than 5 weeks to book through choice.

But HR have allowed you to change your working days during a bank holiday week, so you actually have an advantage over full time staff because you get to choose when to take all of your annual leave and the bank holiday time too. So I'm not sure what the issue is?

I have this too, I work more hours on a Monday than other days in the week to make 40 hours... I get only the 8 hours off for the bank holiday so have a shortfall in hours and make them up on other days in the week. In my case I do 10 hours Mon Tue Wed then 5 on thurs and Fri... I do make up the 2 hours using WFH when child is asleep as I don't have the childcare flex on the Thurs and Fri to just add it on those weeks

Is it possible on your bank hol weeks to do a small amount of extra hours to 'make up' the hours missed for the Monday?

You have interpreted it correctly in your last post. It’s why I don’t work Mondays.

But, if I have to ‘dip in’ to my bank holiday allowance to cover bank holidays I effectively lose 1.5 days of ‘choice’ time. This doesn’t happen to full time employees, or those who don’t work Mondays. So that leaves me with less than 5 weeks to book through choice

Correct but an employer only has to give you the correct amount of leave, not the choice of when you take it. There are many jobs where you don’t get to choose when you can take your leave and it’s perfectly legal.

Your only option is to change your working days.

I have always thought of the BH allowance as separate to the ‘normal’ holiday allowance.

There is your problem. It isn't. You don't have a holiday allowance and a separate bank holiday allowance. You just have a holiday allowance.

If your holiday allowance is 25 days plus bank holidays, what that really means is that your allowance is 33 days (most years - there will an extra bank holiday this year) but your employer stipulates that 8 of those days must be taken on bank holidays.

I get that it’s legal, and seems to be established practise. But I’m curious how it’s accepted as it still doesn’t seem right, logically.

I still can’t wrap my head round how it would be unfair to full time employees. As it stands, they can totally separate bank holidays from non-bank holidays. No full time employees need to use their non-holiday allowance.

The root of the issue is granting 70% of the bank holidays, when more than 70% of the bank holidays fall on Mondays. And I don’t see how I solution is that I work more hours to cover a bank holiday when I cannot work.

No other category of staff need to do that.

For both PT staff who don’t work Mondays, and for FT staff they can keep their two ‘pots’ entirely separate.

@prh47bridge it’s not my issue, it’s the way it’s described in my contract, that is separately.

It would be unfair as you would be getting more than your fair entitlement to holidays. Change your working day if you don't want to be affected