Going part time and bank holidays

[notamorningpanda]

Hello,
I'm considering going down to part time, working 4 days a week with Mondays being my day off. My question is what happens with bank holidays? Am I entitled to a day in lieu or how does it work? TIA

Nope coz you don't work Mondays 🤷🏼‍♀️

Depends on your contract. Everywhere I've worked has paid out holidays pro rata for BH - so likely you wouldn't have 8, but probably 6ish across the year.

You will most likely be given the bank holiday mondays pro rata to take as holiday at another tkme

Where i work for 4 days a week you would get 0.8 of the 8 bank holidays (so 6 days) added to your annual leave and it wouldnt matter that you didn't work a Monday...hence everyone wants to not work a Monday!! You would have to check with your company though how they work it...

You'd need to check with your own company as it can vary

I don’t work Monday’s and I get the bank
hols that are Monday’s as holiday to when I choose. It’s pro rata and in hours but it’s absolutely advantageous in my contract to not work Monday.

I am a teacher and we wouldn't get a day in lieu for a BH. As others have said, you need to check your company policy.

You have to get a proportionate share of bank holidays to match FT employees or it is discrimination between FT and PT employees. Often this extra paid leave is just added to your annual allowance and then if a bank holiday falls on your normal work pattern a day is deducted.

However I also know of some employers who just give all part time employees all bank holidays. My cousin works for a council 4 days a week (so 80% of full time). She has to take the equivalent of 80% of a day off across the working week that a bank holiday falls in.

All in all, you need to get the policy defined in your contract.

Where I work you get paid for bank holiday Mondays if you only work Tuesday to Friday. I enquired of HR recently as I am hoping to go down to 4 days and was wondering whether to take Monday or Friday odd - clearly a no brainer 🙂

'Off' not 'odd'!

In 2024, there are 8 bank holidays, 5 on a Monday and 3 on other days.
If you work Tuesday-Friday, your bank holiday allowance should be 6.4 days (80% of 8).
You will take 3 of those days on bank holidays that fall on your working days, but you'll have 3.4 days extra annual leave to take when you want.
Thats how my employer does it, anyway, and I think many employers do the same.

Of course you get pro rata time off.

It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.

This is also the approach I've seen.

Everywhere I've worked in the last 20 years has used a formula to be fair to all staff regardless of their working patterns but obviously the only way to find out your employers way of doing it is to ask.

No It can’t vary by companies. It’s not up to employers, there is legislation. Full time staff are entitled to a full proportion of bank holidays. Part time are entitled to pro rata to their working pattern. If full time at your employer is 9-5 Monday to Friday, and you work 9-5 Tuesday to Friday, 0.8 of a full time contract then you are entitled to 0.8 of the bank holidays that full time staff are paid for.

The employer can decide whether to pay for it or give you time in lieu but they can’t decide whether or not you get them or what proportion.

@Bobbybobbins I was a teacher before I worked in HR. Teachers are already off on bank holidays. These are factored in to directed time. When there were additional bank holidays in 2021 and 2022 the teachers pay and conditions document was updated with guidance for this. Instead of having 195 directed days there were 194 (pro rata to FTE). You got a day in lieu, you just might not have been able to choose when (although some teachers were given a choice).

@AllThePotatoesAreSinging as you even said, companies can vary how they do this. Some add it onto entitlement, others pay. It can vary by company. OP would be better off asking her company if it's given as time in lieu.

I was reading your reply as meaning that employers have free reign over what you get rather than how you get it,

OP asked if she gets a day in lieu - no she wouldn’t, she would be entitled to 0.8 of a day in lieu whether this is given as paid time off or just paid.

@AllThePotatoesAreSinging not sure how you read that. Even after your answers my answer is still not wrong, she needs to check what happens with her own employer.

This is the most widely used approach I’ve seen.

It is the only correct approach legally.

Some of the answers on this thread are wrong. As you will be working 80% of the hours of full-time staff, you must, by law, have 80% of the holidays. That includes bank holidays. There are 8 bank holidays in most years, so you are entitled to 6.4 days off for bank holidays in addition to any other holiday allowance. So, if full time staff get, say, 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, you will be entitled to 26.4 days in total (which many employers would round up to 26.5 days). Any bank holidays that fall on one of your working days come out of your holiday allowance.

I can also confirm what a pp said, you are entitled to a pro rated number of days off, as I have just had to prove this exact point to my boss. The ACAS & gov.uk websites both say the following:

Statutory minimum number of days holiday for a full time worker is 28. Bank holidays are irrelevant but an employer can require that you take bank holidays as part of this, which is why you will often see "20 days plus bank holidays". Part time workers get a pro rated amount. If you currently have an enhancement and/or other full time staff do, you will also be entitled, they cannot disadvantage you for being part time.

For example, if your full time holiday were 30 days and you stopped working Mondays, you would be entitled to 24 days holiday overall. You would be required to take Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Year's Day (at least this year), leaving you with 20 days to take whenever you like.

You are legally entitled to pro rata holidays of a full time person.

Therefore if you currently get bank holidays then as a 0.8 FTE you will get 0.8 x bank holidays in your leave entitlement.