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?

I work in the public sector and this is the norm. When I went part time I was advised to take Mondays as a non working day for this very reason. It means I barely use any of my bank holiday hours for actual bank holidays (just good Friday and however they fall at Xmas) and it gets added to my leave to take when I please.

if I worked a Monday I’d have to use some of my leave hours to cover the shortfall.

I agree it’s not particularly fair!

It often is quoted as if it is separate in contracts, which confuses a lot of people. You are not alone. However, quoting it separately means you get extra holiday if the government adds another bank holiday. But it is still all one thing really.

the fairness is

lets say 20 days holiday and 8 days bank holidays - and you work 2.5 days a week (monday-Wed lunch)

So you get 10 days hols to take and also 4 days bank holidays

your probably use your 4 days bank holidays to cover the 4 mondays and may have to use your holidays to cover xmas and new years day.

But you can still get 4 full weeks off like full time staff with 20 days + bank hols do- just would be done in the weeks of a bank holiday to only use 1.5 days of holiday for a full week off (In the bank holiday weeks) - which is what most full timers do anyway.

its exactly the same amount of holiday in total, just less choice when you use it.

I went part-time last year and initially thought I would work Mon-Weds. However, I realised that I would have greater flexibility with my holiday if Mondays were my non-working day, so chose Tues-Thurs. Other people I know who work part time also advised me that I shouldn’t have Monday as a non-working day because of this issue. If you can, I would suggest trying to change your non-working day.

I'm the same. I work 7.5hrs per day but I am only allocated 6hrs for a BH which I can't work even if I wanted to so need to use 1.5hrs of my 'own' annual leave to cover. It is annoying as I have no choice to work but the whole day isn't covered by BH allowance, BUT I chose to go part time so that's my own problem!