Need to calculate annual leave entitlement for shift workers & confused!

[Thisisme2024]

Hi, I need to calculate annual leave for shift workers from 1st January 2026. All shifts will be 9.5 hours and the staff will work 4 days on and 4 days off. I've found something on Google:

Make calculations on the basis that shift workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of their average working week, restricted to 28 days of shifts. Therefore, a shift worker's full statutory annual leave entitlement is the lower of:
a) 5.6 weeks x average shifts per week, or
b) 28 days' worth of shifts (TBH I'm not sure I understand this bit!)

For 2026

Shift 1 will work 4 days on and 4 days off from Thursday 1st January which equates to 184 shifts and they will work on 5 of the 8 bank holidays

Shift 2 will work 4 days on and 4 days off from Monday 5th January which equates to 181 shifts worked and they will work on 3 of the 8 bank holidays

To add a bit more to the mix, employees are entitled to either 25, 26, 27 or 28 days' annual leave from 1st January to 31st December.

Ideally I'd like to create an excel spreadsheet where I just plug in all of the numbers but I'm not sure where to start!

Has anyone had experience of working out the above?

Any help would be VERY much appreciated, thanks in advance!

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/calculating-holiday-entitlement-for-workers/how-to-calculate-holiday-entitlement-for-workers-on-different-types-of-contract

This might help.
From what I can work out your shift workers work 4 days out of 8 so using their formula gives (4÷8) x 9.5 = 4.75 shifts per week
4.75 shifts x 5.6 weeks holiday = 26.6 shifts of annual leave or 252.7 hours.

Do they work bank holidays or have them off? If they get the holidays then deduct 1 shift or 9.5 hours for each one they are due to work from your original total and the rest of their holidays are free to be chosen.

What do you mean by having 25, 26, 27 or 28 days holiday? Statutory minimum for full timers is 28 days. Part time staff get pro rata holidays

Hi, thank you so much for responding! Sorry, my laptop didn't refresh so I've only just seen your reply.

I think I got my calculation from the same website but is it not:

(4 divided by 8) x 7 = 3.5 shifts per week ?

So:

3.5 shifts x 6.6 weeks' holiday (staff who get 25 days, plus bank holidays) = 23.1 shifts of annual leave

3.5 shifts x 6.8 weeks' holiday (staff who get 26 days, plus bank holidays) = 23.8 shifts of annual leave

3.5 shifts x 7 weeks' holiday (staff who get 27 days, plus bank holidays) = 24.5 shifts of annual leave

3.5 shifts x 7.2 weeks' holiday (staff who get 28 days, plus bank holidays) = 25.2 shifts of annual leave

Also that link gave an example (Wanda) which said the lower of the above calculation and 28 days' worth of shifts but I don't understand what that figure would be (sorry, I know I'm being dim!).

They will be working bank holidays so I thought we could calculate the below (not sure if this is too simplistic):

Shift 1 will work 5 of the 8 bank holidays (so add 1 day to their entitlement to compensate)

Shift 2 will work 3 of the 8 bank holidays (so minus 1 day from their entitlement to compensate)

Many thanks!

Presumably they start on 25 days annual leave and get additional for length of service.

The easiest way for shift workers on that kind of pattern would be to work their entitlement out in hours.

Based on the statutory minimu of 5.6 weeks they accrue holidays at 12.07% of hours worked (my payroll software calculates this for me) . This includes bank holiday entitlement.

So if they work 4 x 9.5 hours one week then they will accrue 4.5866 hours that week.

The percentage accrual can be adjusted if they are allowed a higher entitlement.

That would be 25 plus extra bank holidays though. You cant just get 25 in total (unless it's a pro rata of 25)

@Thisisme2024 what do full time staff get wrt annual leave/bank holidays? Usually you'd add both together and then work out the pro rata number of holidays

Working it out pro rata is easier if a worker works the same number of days per week. With a 4 on, 4 off shift pattern then although most weeks they will work 4 days, some weeks they will work 3 or 5, hence why it is better to calculate it hourly.

@AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti - yes they start on 25, then 26, then 27, then 28 plus bank holidays

It’s says plus bank holidays in the later breakdown.

Should the below be (4÷8) x 7 (working days per week) = 3.5 shifts per week

(4÷8) x 9.5 = 4.75 shifts per week

The gov.uk website says to calculate as per the below:

Make calculations on the basis that shift workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of their average working week, restricted to 28 days of shifts. Therefore, a shift worker's full statutory annual leave entitlement is the lower of:
a) 5.6 weeks x average shifts per week, or
b) 28 days' worth of shifts (TBH I'm not sure I understand this bit!)

So I'm trying to do 2026 (a full year), to get my head round it. Then I have to do from 1st July to 31st December 2025 as the new shift pattern will take effect in July - so I'll need to calculate 6 months of the current working pattern (Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week) and 6 months of the 4 on, 4 off pattern (taking into account bank holidays) - these employees all have their AL in hours, THEN I need to do the 2025 bit again for one employee who works different hours on different days so his entitlement is already in hours. My head is spinning! :(

Thanks for your replies!

Does your payroll software work out the average working week for you?

The b. 28 days worth of shifts is because even if someone works 6 days per week they don't get any extra holiday entitlement for that.

5.6 weeks is based on statutory minimum entitlement of 28 days (20 days plus bank holidays) so that calculation won't work for you if they are entitled to 25 days plus bank holidays.

I’m a shift worker and have never heard of annual leave calculated in weeks!
calculate it in hours.

365 days in a year. They work 1/2 of them, so 182.5 days. Weekly that’s the equivalent of 3.5 days a week

If those working 5 days a week get 25 days plus 8 bank holidays, the shift workers should get 3.5/5 of that. Which is 23.1 (23.5) days, with each day being 9.5 hours.

I think.

@Comefromaway Does your payroll software work out the average working week for you?
Our payroll is outsourced, I need to work this out for our HR system so I know what annual leave entitlement to put in for each employee

@Comefromaway 5.6 weeks is based on statutory minimum entitlement of 28 days (20 days plus bank holidays) so that calculation won't work for you if they are entitled to 25 days plus bank holidays.
That's why I've calculated the below:
3.5 shifts x 6.6 weeks' holiday (staff who get 25 days, plus bank holidays) = 23.1 shifts of annual leave
3.5 shifts x 6.8 weeks' holiday (staff who get 26 days, plus bank holidays) = 23.8 shifts of annual leave
3.5 shifts x 7 weeks' holiday (staff who get 27 days, plus bank holidays) = 24.5 shifts of annual leave
3.5 shifts x 7.2 weeks' holiday (staff who get 28 days, plus bank holidays) = 25.2 shifts of annual leave

@Jeezitneverends
Thanks, I'm not calculating it in weeks, I'm calculating it in days (or shifts) as per the gov.uk website

@AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti
365 days in a year. They work 1/2 of them, so 182.5 days. Weekly that’s the equivalent of 3.5 days a week
If those working 5 days a week get 25 days plus 8 bank holidays, the shift workers should get 3.5/5 of that. Which is 23.1 (23.5) days, with each day being 9.5 hours.

Thanks for this, makes me more confident with my spreadsheet as I got the same but using the gov.uk calculation (yours is much easier to me):

(4÷8) x 7 = 3.5 shifts per week
6.6 x 3.5 shifts = 23.1 shifts

😀

@Thisisme2024 the government is talking about statutory leave. You also give occupational leave, so you won't restrict the leave to 28 shifts, because your workers are entitled to more.

You'll find it so much easier if you work in hours.

Number of days inc BH, less any BH that fall on your working day. I’d normally agree with hours but all shifts are the same length so can keep as days unless they straddle days, then do hours.

So 25+8 =33 then you deduct any bank holidays that fall on your working days for the year, if they’re not working.

Hi, does anyone see an issue with my logic below?

They will be working bank holidays so I thought we could calculate the below (not sure if this is too simplistic):

Shift 1 will work 5 of the 8 bank holidays (so add 1 day to their entitlement to compensate)

Shift 2 will work 3 of the 8 bank holidays (so minus 1 day from their entitlement to compensate)

Thanks 😀

You won’t be able to work it in shift and days. There’s a much easier calculation.

salary will be worked out over 37.5 hour week, with an entitlement of 6.6 weeks leave, which will be calculated over a 7 day week but their shift rotation is over 8 days, which is why the .gov calculation doesn’t work and your head is fried!

Their shifts of 4 on 4 off means that over 8 weeks they work 300 hours.

they’re entitlement is 6.6x37.5 hours =243.75 hours, which will probably not fit neatly into days or shifts.

How many hours per day is the staff member paid? Because if they have 6 sets of shifts off that would give them 342 hours which is clearly too much, hence shift workers who work over anything other than a 7 day rotation have to have their leave calculated in hours

I work in a 24/7/365 organisation and have been doing these calculations for years

I promise you that it will be easier to calculate the entitlement in hours.

@Jeezitneverends

Thanks for your reply!

I think I've worked out the days/shifts with the gov.uk calculation:

(4÷8) x 7 = 3.5 shifts per week
6.6 x 3.5 shifts = 23.1 shifts

They currently work 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday) but will be moving to a 9.5 hour shift, 4 days on and 4 days off from 1st July 2025 hence why my head is fried😫

@Comefromaway
I promise you that it will be easier to calculate the entitlement in hours.

Perhaps but I don't have a payroll system to work it out for me. I'm trying to create a template in Excel where I can input the below before I put it into our HR system:

Shift 1, 25 days' leave plus bank holidays
Shift 2, 25 days' leave plus bank holidays

Shift 1, 26 days' leave plus bank holidays
Shift 2, 26 days' leave plus bank holidays

Shift 1, 27 days' leave plus bank holidays
Shift 2, 27 days' leave plus bank holidays

Shift 1, 28 days' leave plus bank holidays
Shift 2, 28 days' leave plus bank holidays

I've managed to do the above using the gov.uk recommendation and have got to the calculation in days....