Work xhanging holiday entitlement

[Tashacampbo85]

I work Monday weds and Friday for ly company. I have had holiday entitlement of 15 days plus bank holidays for the last four years.
Work have now advised that they are changing my holidays to be 16 days including bank holidays. Can they do this? It now feels
like i am working extra days each year with no
extra pay as ive gone from 21 ish holidays with bank holidays to only 16.
i am the only working mum in the company and this will seriously mess up my childcare during the school holidays which is when i usually use my days.
after any advice and confirmations that he can legally reduce my holidays without any conversation etc. i literally received an emailing me telling me this is the new normal.
thanks in advance

This sounds like a pay cut. I don’t suppose you are in a union?

a - what does your contract say?

b - has anyone else been told that their holiday allowance has changed from 'plus bank holidays' to 'including bank holidays' with an amendment of the days?

5.6 weeks is the statutory minimum so 5.6 x 3 days per week would be 16.8 days anyway.

Contact ACAS, they’re good for situations like this

Nobody can unilaterally change the terms of a contract. It has to be by agreement. However the employee is always the vulnerable person in that negotiation. What is written in your contract?

This would take you under the statutory minimum. Call ACAS and get some advice.

We’ve always had leave in hours and then if your part time it’s pro rata that of a FT person. I don’t think they can change a contract without consultation and you signing it?

Tbh you were lucky before because by working mon weds and fri you will have got disproportionately more bank hols than colleagues as there are far more of them on mondays and fridays so actually your agreement before was unfair on your full time colleagues.
What should be happening is that you get pro-rata'd bh allowance for the fact you work only 0.6fte

First I’d check that 16 is 3/5 of what the full time staff are getting. If it’s not then you can easily challenge.
I make that 26.6 days for full timers which sounds very unlikely (surely it would be a whole number of days?)

Its possible theyve applied some of your annual leave to bank hols that occur on a monday/friday in excess of your pro-rata'd bh allowance

When I worked in retail decades ago, my day off was Mondays, which was so unfair for bank holidays ☹️ I still remember the feelings of injustice

It is possible that you have got lucky in the past 4 years and your entitlement has been calculated wrong, you work 60% of the time so are entitled to 60% of the bank holidays. Otherwise you are receiving an unfair amount of holiday in comparison to full time workers

Any change of terms and conditions is supposed to require a period of consultation and notice for it starting to apply which is long enough that of you don't find it acceptable you can resign. You aren't going to be forced to stay in your job but yes your employer can change the Ts&Cs.

It sounds to me like your original Leave allowance was miscalculated. What do full time employees get? As you work 60% of fte you should get 60% ofcthe paid time-off that they get, including bank holidays. The fact that you work both monday and friday in a normal week may mean you were gettinh disproportionately more than 60% of the full time entitlement.

Statutory full time is 28 days leave incl BH so if you do 0.6FTE hours then you’re entitled to at least 16.8 days so I’d argue it should be either taken as hours or rounded up to 17 not down to 16.
BUT that’s only statutory minimum - the more important question is what the FT staff get.

This sums it up OP. Plus the fact that if your original contract is different they can't just change it!

I have added an attachment of what i was made to sign when i came back from maternity leave and went from full time to part time.
They never gave me 12 days the actually gave me 15 plus the bank holidays. I am happy to go to 12 plus bank holidays as per this agreement.
The full tome staff have had their holidays changed from 28 days plus bank holidays to 32 including bank holidays.

thanks xx

Based on you working 20hrs if the full timers work 37hr week you are entitled to 20/37=54% of the FT leave if that’s 32days inc. bank hols that would be 17.3days. And you would need to book off all the bank holidays in the year with that leave. You are at quite a disadvantage working both Mon & Fri as most bank hols fall on those days. So if you booked all the bank holidays off which is normally 9days? your left with 8.3days leave per year. Or 2weeks of 3d and one week of 2.3days. That’s how my organisation works.

The full tome staff have had their holidays changed from 28 days plus bank holidays to 32 including bank holidays.

That is effectively a pay cut. The previous holiday entitlement came to 36 days most years as there are usually 8 bank holidays, so they have removed 4 days annual leave. They can only make that change if staff consent. If staff do not consent to this change and they try to force it through, that could give staff a case for the Employment Tribunal.

Assuming full time staff work a 40-hour week, your entitlement should have been 18 days including bank holidays. They were being very generous giving you 15 days plus bank holidays. That gave you at least 20 days per year. The proposed new arrangement is in line with what they are doing with full-time staff, but the same applies. They cannot impose this without your consent. If they dismiss you for refusing to consent or impose it regardless, you may have a case for taking them to tribunal.

What do they class as full time loads of companies are different some class 36 hours full time others 40
need to know this before anyone can work it out

Agree that you’ve been lucky up until now. However, as a minimum you should get at least 5.6 x weekly hours. For 20 per week, that’s 112 hours INCLUDING bank holidays.
I think they are confusing you by putting this in days as it doesn’t quite add up.

I think they've realised that they were giving you 60% of the holiday allowance PLUS bank.holidays and they've decided to change it.

This happened to me a couple of years ago, it's rubbish.

If you changed your days to Tues/Weds/Thurs you would probably end up with more days, due to never having a bank holiday, but it's unlikely it'll go up to that many again.

No, at a minimum she should get 0.6 of whatever full time staff get. Her employer cannot give her the statutory minimum whilst giving more for full time staff.

From her latest update, OP was getting at least 2 days more than she should have previously. What they are now proposing is in line with what they are doing for full time staff, but they cannot reduce everyone's holiday entitlement without their consent.

That’s exactly my point. She’s been lucky up until now because they’ve not been pro-rating her bank holidays.
It sounds like they are trying to fix it now and drawing a line under historical overpayment.

As for the pro-rating I see it’s now 6.6 rather than 5.6, but even so that should be worked out in hours, not days for fairness.

That may be their intention (although I don't think it is), but they still need her consent to do it. This is a change to her terms and conditions. They can't legally say they are reducing her holiday unilaterally because they gave her too much in the past. And, given that they are trying to reduce the holiday entitlement of permanent staff, I think it has more to do with that than any desire to correct what they've done with OP previously.

Thanks everyone i am going in to see him today.
If i do not agree to the changes can they sack me? I am happy if they want to make me redundant. Do i have to accept the changes?

i am a single mum so this is going to mess up my ability to take holidays during half term etc and my childcare.

i just think its crazy regardless if they have been generous in previous years they are now making me work an extra 5/6 days a year without any pay for it.

its really stressing me out xx

As others have said, it's not days but hours that count for part time. From the contract it seems you are half time so your statutory minimum holidays is 14 days (10 annual leave plus 4 bank holidays). They are reducing everyone's holidays to 32 so as you are half time that's 16, above minimum.

The issue is them unilaterally changing everyone's holidays rather than just what is happening to you - has there been financial compensation for the reduction?