Pro rata holidays

[ISolemnlySwearIAmUpToNoGood]

Hoping someone knowledgeable can help as I can’t seem to find an answer online but that’s probably because I’m not wording it very well!

I work different hours on different days ie Monday 7 hours, Tuesday 7 hours, Wednesday 5 hours, Thursday 4 hours and Friday 4 hours so holidays are pro rata.

When I first dropped down to these hours from full time a few years ago, I asked the person who deals with holidays if a full day holiday would need to be taken on the days where I don’t do the full 7 hours and she said yes as the 4/5 hours I work on those days are classed as my full day.

However someone else in the office doesn’t think this is right as my holiday entitlement is already pro rata so for the days that I don’t work a full 7 hours I should only be taking half day holiday not a full day.

Both of their points make sense to me so am very confused and hoping someone can help please!

It should be worked out in hours and you only use the hours you need for that days holiday.

Yes it’s got to be done in hours for you.
it could be done as full days if you always worked 4 hours each day or 4 hours twice a week. Then a full day is 4 hours and half a day 2 hours. But your days vary so must be done in hours.

Surely both holiday entitlement and time taken should be calculated hourly.
There is a calculator on gov.uk website which will calculate your statutory entitlement if that helps.

Thanks for the replies. The gov.uk calculator says 151.2 hours which I’m assuming includes bank holidays? My pro rata entitlement is 20 days without including bank holidays. Any ideas how I work out if the hourly entitlement calculated works out the same as the days please? I’ve tried and it’s frying my brain

No it should be worked out in hours.
My work dont work out in hours but I work 6 hours every day so HR changed the holidays system to represent a day for me = 6 hours. Not 7.5 like everyone else.

I assume the full time holiday entitlement is 25 days at 7 hours each? So 175 hours. Your pro rata entitlement is therefore 140 hours (assuming you’re 0.8 of a full timer). If you take a Monday you use 7 hours of the 140, if you take a Friday off you use 4 hours.

and a Monday Bank holiday will “cost” you more hotels than a Friday one.

I work in payroll and I agree that in your case your entitlement should be worked out in hours.

So how do I work out how they’ve calculated 20 days? Yes I think full time entitlement is 25 days at 7 hours each and I do 27 hours a week which I think is 0.7714 of a 35 hour full time week? So 135 hours (rounded up from 134.995). Would I average my hours over the week to work out the days then? 27 hours over 5 days is 5.4 a day. Would that be 135 ➗ 7? As that gives me 19.28 etc so should be 19 and a half days not 20? I hate maths!

I guess it depends how they give you your holiday

if full time people get say 20 days and you get 20 days then you take a whole day

it’s much more normal to prorata holiday and work it out in hours - so if you work 3/4 of full time you would be given the equivalent of 3/4 of holiday - 15 days converted to hours - if a standard full time was 8hrs per day you would have 15*8 hrs

Id do this is way:

25 x 7 = 175hours
175 x 0.7714 = 134.995 = rounded to 135 hours.

I wouldn't then split it down to days as your hours are different each day. You should be booking the amount of hours needed for whatever day you need.

If full time gets 20+8 days which is the statutory entitlement. You get the number of hours you have calculated. Then take off the number of working hours lost on bank holidays not worked e.g. 7+4=11 hours for Easter weekend. Then take off the number of hours used for each days holiday.

Thinking about it in days.
151.2÷7 = 21.6 days including bank holidays
Easter weekend 11 hours ÷7 = 1.6 days (rounded)
Wednesday 5 ÷7 = 0.7 days (rounded)

If full time gets more than the minimum (28 days including public holidays) then you will need to pro-rata the extra.

Eh? Why? If you have 135 hours leave, and you take Monday (7 hours) and Friday (4 hours) off then you have used 11 of your 135 hours leave, so you have 124 hours left.

You don't calculate it days you calculate it in hours.

It needs to be pro rata in hours against what FT are entitled to incl BHs in hours

Then you all use the number of hours you need for a day off according to your individual working patterns.

Your working day is 4 hours, a day off costs you 4 hours, if you work 27 hours a week, a week off costs 27 hours.

Same for FT but 7 hours a day, 35 hours a week or whatever.

The minimum holidays you should get is 5.6 weeks worth of your hours. If you work 27 hours it would be = 151.2 hours.

If you would normally work 4 hours on a particular day then that's how many hours should be deducted if you are on holiday that day. If its a 7 hour day then deduct 7 hours.

The 151.2 hours will include pro rata bank holidays.

So I also work part time and do all the calcs for annual leave in my workplace. My BH entitlement is not included as I get a half day time off in lieu on the same week as the bank holiday (as the bank holidays don't fall on days I work). I'm based in Ireland so caveat this may be slightly different and you need to figure out the BH issue with your HR.

You work 77% of the standard week in your place of employment.

If 100% = 25 days, then you would be entitled to 19.25 standard annual leave days per year, which is 134.75 hours. You would then book your annual leave in hours against this allowance. The person who deals with annual leave in your workplace was wrong with this one and I would be asking for it to be reviewed with the correct calculations as you may have annual leave owed to you.

I was going to say much what @LolaJ87 just did, except I estimated that you work 73% FTE (27/37 x 100%).

So you should get 73% of full time leave, which is (25 x 7) x 0.73 =127.75 hrs.

If you need a day off on a Monday you take off 7 hours; on a Friday you take off 4 hours etc.

You do a similar calculation to work out bank holiday leave:
(8 x 7) x 0.73 =40.88 hrs

Then you take the appropriate number of hours when a bank holiday falls on your working day.