How many bank holidays am I entitled to?

[Kmward36]

I work for the NHS. I work full time, over 3 days. I am not ward based -office based. this area is not open evenings, weekends or bank holidays.

my contract states that I am entitled to my annual leave plus bank holidays on top. it doesn’t not specify bank holidays on working days etc.

I don’t work on a Monday. What happens to those bank holidays? Am I not entitled to those hours of leave because of the days I work? Or can I take them back elsewhere?

my colleagues who work on a Monday get this day off (on top of annual leave). My team leader has said it’s just tough I don’t work that day and I can’t use the hours another day.

I’ve emailed HR, just waiting to hear back. Thought I’d try and get some other points of view!

I work part-time in the NHS (18 .5 hours). Full time staff work 37 hours Monday to Friday. I don't work on a Monday.

For everyone the public holiday hours are added to annual leave at the beginning of the holiday year (half of the amount for me) and then for each public holiday that is a normal working day for you those hours are deducted from your total. I mostly gain days that I can take when I want to rather than on specific days - not so much this year because of when the public holidays fall.

You should get your AL and BH calculated as hours (based on a normal 7.5 hour day & 37.5 hour week) so if you have >10 years NHS service you'd get 33 days AL plus 8 days BH (41 days x 7.5 hours) = 307.5 hours leave

Any time you are off on a day you usually work (whether AL or BH) your would use that number of hours (eg 12.5) from your entitlement. If you have a non-working day that falls on a BH, you don't use any leave for that BH (you can use it as AL another time).

Having a non-working day on a Monday in a no-brainer, you get more flexibility on when you book days off so it feels like you have more holiday!

Your trust should have a leave calculator but there’s one here (it’s not just for nurses) as an example - https://nursingnotes.co.uk/nhs-annual-leave-calculator/

If you’re with a Scottish Board we use this national one workforce.nhs.scot/calculators/annual-leave-calculator

Sounds like your employer was calculating your holiday wrong then. It’s not tough luck, you still get the day but at another time. That’s why it’s an advantage to not work on Mondays when you work part time!

If you're full time NHS and have 10 years long service, the entitlement is 33 days plus 8 bank holidays (more if it's a year with an extra BH like a jubilee/Queens funeral).

But they calculate it in hours now so it's 300 something hours over the year.

If you're a Dr, dentist or senior management it's different but if you're not, that's the entitlement.

Monday is the best day to be off regularly for this reason! Whatever your full year of leave hours plus the hours that the 8 bank holidays is your annual leave for the year. You pro-rate it if you are part time, then deduct hours for any bank holidays that fall on your working days, and the rest is annual leave that you can take when you choose. Therefore, if you are usually off on Mondays you get a higher flexible annual leave balance because most Bank Holidays are on Mondays and you don't need to use up leave for them as you're still working your normal hours that week. Also, no Sunday night dread!